


Written In The Stars

by HaleOnThis



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek Hale, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Angst, BAMF Stiles, Bullied Stiles Stilinski, Bully Derek Hale, Dead Claudia Stilinski, Depressed Stiles Stilinski, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, F/F, F/M, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Mental Health Issues, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Stiles Stilinski, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Past Abuse, Slow Burn, The Hale Family (Teen Wolf) Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 31,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22784932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaleOnThis/pseuds/HaleOnThis
Summary: Stiles grows up being looked down by everyone and goes through things a child should never have to. He must learn to stand up for himself and fight for himself and his adventures do just that.I'm horrible at summaries, so just give it a shot.
Relationships: Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin/Jackson Whittemore, Stiles Stilinski/Original Male Character(s), Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes
Comments: 77
Kudos: 392





	1. The call of the stars

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Teen wolf or any associated characters. However the idea behind the story is original and inspired by my fascination with stars. So I hope you enjoy.
> 
> [ Supernatural creatures are the majority (common), humans are minority (rare) in this AU.  
> In this AU at the age of 14 every person will present as an Alpha, Beta, or Omega for their species. Ex - Alpha werewolf, or beta human. Omegas have been stigmatized, especially omega humans, and are often picked on because of how weak they are considered to be.] Also I made Stiles’ b-day oct 22 because why not.

Stiles picked up his backpack that was leaning on the worn out sofa in the living room and made his way to his jeep that his mom had helped him pick out. He cherished the car the most from all of his possessions, since it always reminded him of her. Stiles didn’t really want to go to school but he knew that if there was any way he wanted to get out of Beacon hills it was through good grades and making sure he got accepted into a college far from his hometown.

The small town had a lot of good memories associated with it. He especially liked the memories of him sitting in the coffeeshops that his mom would take him to, to make him feel better when he was feeling lonely or sad. Or all the memories of him playing with the deputies at the police station, where he spent most of his time after his mother’s death. But for every good memory there were five horrible ones. Like Beacon Hills Hospital, where his mother had died. That memory was still fresh in Stiles’ mind and one that often tormented him. Or the fact that ever since his mother’s death, his father has been doing nothing but drinking and working. And of course he can’t forget his elementary school, where all the kids would play tricks on him, all but one, who went by the name of Scott McCall.

After 10 years not much had changed. His elementary school bullies became his high school bullies, his father still running on booze, and Scott, well if Stiles was being honest, Scott had changed. When it came to highschool, Scott joined the popular kids by default thanks to puberty, presenting as an alpha, and then he joined the lacrosse team so he became one with the people who would torment him. It didn’t help that Stiles presented as an omega, which everyone knew was the weakest in the hierarchy. At first Stiles and Scott would still hang out every now and then. Scott would invite Stiles to parties that Stiles knew no one wanted him at. Stiles still went though because it was time he got to spend with Scott. But after awhile Scott would just leave Stiles at the party and hang out with the popular kids. Eventually Stiles would just decline the invitations that Scott had so ‘generously’ extended to him. After that it didn’t take Scott long to phase out Stiles from his social circle. So it was just him now; but he wasn’t mad. He was excited. This was his last year in highschool, and so far he had a 4.0 GPA and he’s going to keep it that way. If everything goes to plan, he’ll be able to go to university far from this place and finally be able to leave it all behind. It was easier said than done, the popular kids, or “The Alphas” as everyone around school had started calling them since they were all alphas, had made it their mission to disturb Stiles every opportunity they got. It didn’t help that Stiles was human, made him easy to pick on. Needless to say it made studying at school difficult. The group consisted of: Jackson Whittemore (Alpha kanima), Isaac Lahey (Alpha werewolf), Vernon Boyd (Alpha werewolf), Erica Reyes (Alpha werecat), Lydia Martin (Alpha banshee), Scott McCall (Alpha werewolf), Allison Argent (Alpha human) and their leader Derek Hale (Alpha werewolf). 

Jackson Whittemore is the adopted son of one of the richest married couple in town. So ever since childhood the boy had everything he wanted and needed. Everyone was always around Jackson so that they could get an inside look at the luxurious life. Stiles remembers Jackson from grade 1. Jackson had just come in, and as soon as the teacher read his name out loud to the class, everyone except Stiles gasped. Everyone knew he was the rich kid. So of course the kids swarmed to him. Stiles often wondered if he would be more popular if he was rich.

Isaac Lahey is “the cute boy” of the group. Everyone knew Isaac as the cute boy ever since they were young, even if he did have bruises on his face as a kid. Then it was made public news that his father was abusing his wife and kids.It became the talk of the school in grade 3. But people fell to his support in no time, helping him through his time of need and making sure he had everything he needed. While Stiles had nothing against people helping Isaac in his time of need, he wondered where were they when he needed them, because when his mother died the school did not hesitate to take a moment from it’s daily routine of tormenting him, but instead made it worse. Stiles often wondered if he would be more popular if he was more likeable.

Vernon Boyd, or “Boyd” as he would tell teachers when they would call him for attendance. Boyd was the mysterious one of the group. He didn’t speak much, or do much. He liked to keep to himself and liked it if people he didn’t know did the same. No one really knew much about him and people were scared of him because of that. But that didn’t stop them from undressing him with their eyes. He was attractive and powerful and Stiles wasn’t going to argue with that. Boyd was attractive and powerful, powerful enough to lift Stiles up and throw him in the dumpster behind school. Stiles wondered if he would be more popular if he was strong. 

Erica Reyes; she was something else. She wore her acrylic nails like claws and makeup like war paint. People charmed by every step she took, unable to take their eyes off of her. She knew that she was hot and she was going to take full advantage of it. People would do everything she said without any questions even though they knew she was in a relationship with Boyd. People didn’t seem to care about that fact. So Stiles often wondered, what if he was more attractive, would he be more popular? 

Lydia Martin. The smartest student in the school. Lydia had always been on top of every class. She hated being corrected, and would only talk to people she deemed “worthy”. She wouldn’t even give you the time of the day unless you were worth something. People were always taken aback by her combo of beauty and brains. Stiles was always second to her, and he had never been able to beat her marks. No one dared question her or even look at her without her permission. Not many things would scare that girl, if anything. Stiles wondered if he would be popular if he was the smartest in the school. 

Scott McCall. Once Stiles’ friend and now a part of the group that makes him question his existence. Scott was just like Stiles, a quirky kid, but the difference was that Scott was an alpha, an alpha that happened to look really good with his shirt on and off. So people fell head over heels for Scott in highschool and Stiles couldn’t help but wonder if people would like him more if he was an alpha too. 

Allison Argent. Although people were scared of Lydia, Allison striked just as much fear into people’s hearts. She excelled with all weapons, with her speciality in bows. She was on the school’s archery team and people had seen first hand how amazing her aim was. So people found her talent and skill cool. She didn’t mind the attention and fame but it was obvious that she liked being feared better than loved. Stiles would often wonder, what if he was good at something? Would people like him more? 

Which brings us to the leader, Derek Hale. There wasn’t a single soul in Beacon hills who didn’t know Derek. Derek was smart in every subject, not the smartest, but never failed a class. He was a part of every sport team for the boys, all except the badminton team. He would have joined but he just didn’t enjoy the game. He was attractive and he knew it. And thanks to his parents' wealth he was also rich by default. So no wonder everyone liked him; well everyone except Stiles. Stiles might have liked Derek if it weren’t for the teeny tiny fact that he and his friends were bullies, and Derek had the power to influence his friends to change. They listen to his every command, and yet he sees what they do, sees how they treat people and does nothing about it. 

Stiles was always scared of Derek, if Stiles was being totally honest. Stiles had been beaten up by Jackson, humiliated by Lydia, thrown in the dumpster by Boyd, made fun of by Isaac, betrayed by Scott, threatened by Allison, but nothing, nothing from Derek. He didn’t care enough to beat Stiles up or even bat an eyelash towards him, and he definitely didn’t give a damn to help him either. So Stiles thought, if Derek did ever do something to him it would mean that Derek would be really really pissed, and that probably would be how Stiles died. Or that’s how Stiles imagines it at least.

Today was the first day of his last year and Stiles was really excited. Just one more year and he could finally leave this town behind. Stiles entered the school gates and immediately made his way towards his locker, to find his locker had already been vandalized with “your stupid”. Stiles scoffed at it; it wasn’t the first time he was seeing this. Jackson and Isaac had done this many times before, this was kind of their M.O. However they had lost creativity over the years. It started out with funny names they would call Stiles, but eventually it just turned into phrases like, well “Your stupid”. And he knew it was Jackson or Isaac because firstly they used ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’. No one else in their group was that stupid. Secondly the others didn’t play pranks, they were more direct, one might even say, more “hands-on”. But that didn’t mean Jackson and Isaac didn’t take part in beating Stiles up, they definitely did, it’s just that it was only those two who did stuff like vandalize Stiles’ lockers. 

Stiles used his locker, put the books from his bag into his locker, and took the ones he needed with him. He started to make his way to his first class, which was English class with Ms.Crow. She was a nice lady kind to all, but very oblivious. It seemed she never noticed any of the bullying that happened in her class. Isn’t that funny, she can spot a literary device from a mile away but seems to have trouble noticing the obvious signs of bullying. 

Just as he was about to enter the class, the door was blocked by Jackson and Isaac. 

“Do me a favour and disappear.” Jackson said while Isaac just grinned. Stiles assumed Jackson was getting a head start on his daily quota of “pick on Stiles”. 

“Come on Jackson, just let me in, I'll stay out of your way.” Stiles said, keeping his head down.

Jackson seemed to get a little angry at the response Stiles gave. “You existing gets in my way.” He responded. 

Stiles knew that if he continued this conversation it was going to end with him having bruises all over his body that he would have to tend to later. So he decided to just observe class from outside. Previously he would just wait until the bell rang and then everyone would take a seat, and he’d walk right in without any problem. Sure he got scolded by teachers for being a little late, but he could handle that. Jackson however got creative, he would just find Stiles after class and beat him up then saying “better not see you in class next time. I can’t focus on learning when there’s a freak in the room.” So instead Stiles would observe class from the hall. The teachers would mark him absent and he’d get a call home every month saying that he’s been missing too many classes but his dad was either at work or too drunk to notice. Stiles was also called down to the office now and then. The principal would ask him to justify why he’s been away from so many classes. Stiles tried explaining to them that he was being bullied and that the kids responsible wouldn’t let him attend. When the principal heard this, she laughed and said “Stiles you’re going to need a better story than that.” In that instant Stiles knew he wasn’t going to be trusted so he just lied and played “the dead mother card”. It worked wonders on adults most of the time, not so much on teenagers. The principal always let him go though because Stiles’ grades were always good, even though he had to pick up assignments ten minutes after the bell dismissed the class, and hand them in a day advance to ensure he wasn’t late, and ten minutes after class to make sure he wasn’t targeted. The system worked amazingly. It had its flaws like if the assignment was a presentation Stiles had no choice but to go in, stand in front of his peers and give his presentation and ultimately be beat up after school or class. That happened every now and then but he’d rather take a beating than lose 10% of his mark. 

So Stiles took his seat in the hall and took out his paper and pencil, ready to make notes when he noticed a strange man walking in the halls. The man, who looked no older than 25, was wearing a robe,not something you see everyday, but Stiles supposed he could be a monk or a priest of some sort. The man was walking, but it didn’t look like he knew where he was or where he was going. Stiles ignored the man and put his focus back to the teacher, he couldn’t risk being distracted especially since he already had the disadvantage of being so far from the teacher. 

But it wasn’t long until Stiles was disturbed by the man. “Hi, excuse me. Perhaps you could help me. I’m trying to find the room with the devices that make beautiful noises.” 

Stiles thought that was an odd way of asking for the music room. “I think you mean the music room, 2 lefts, take the stairs down, a right, then a left and that should be it.” Stiles said in a hurry fully knowing that there is no way that the person understood what he said. To his surprise the man nodded his head to acknowledge that he understood and started to follow the directions that Stiles had just said. 

The rest of the day was more or less the same. Either being forced to observe class from outside or if he was lucky he got to enter the class. Lunch was always the hard part for Stiles. Teachers wouldn’t allow him to eat in class, the cafeteria was off limits thanks to the Alphas making a mockery of him. So Stiles would be left with the hallways, which worked great until the hall monitors would ask him to leave. Which meant the only place left was the washrooms. At first it was kind of gross, but Stiles got used to it, and he adapted to it. Not the cleanest place, but at least it was safe. 

In his last period Stiles made sure to leave 5 minutes before the bell rang so he could get to his car without anyone giving him trouble. And he guessed he was in luck today because he made it without any trouble. Stiles got in and made his way to the coffee shop that he and his mom often visited. Stiles liked to just sit there and relax. Plus it was one place where the kids from the school didn’t come since it was considered to be an old people’s place. And they weren’t wrong, it was mainly the geriatric population that came to this particular coffee shop but it was only because it was the closest one to the retirement home. Stiles didn’t really care though. 

Stiles arrived at the coffee shop, got himself a coffee and sat down on the chair outside of the shop. Just enjoying his cup and the moment of silence. Albeit that it didn’t last long. 

The weirdly dressed man from the school had also come here. Stiles didn’t let his eyes linger too long but he feared it was already too late since the man had already started to make his way towards Stiles. 

“Ah, so we meet again.” the man with the robe said. 

“I guess we do.” Stiles said before going back to his coffee. 

“Your instructions were most helpful. I was able to find the room with no problems. Thank you again for that.” 

“No worries.” Stiles said and hesitated before starting to speak again: “i know it’s not my place...but why were you looking for the music room? Hardly anyone goes there willingly.”  
The man sat down in the chair across from Stiles and started to speak. “A friend of mine passed away a long time ago. Almost 11 years now. She had told me that this town was the most beautiful place she had ever seen and that life would not be complete if i had not seen it.” 

“I’m sorry, for your loss. But i can’t imagine what your friend saw in this town. Doesn’t seem so special.” Stiles said. 

“I said the same thing, but she did always have a way of finding beauty even where it didn’t exist. She used to say ‘We often get used to beauty, so…’” the man was interrupted by Stiles. “So when it comes to noticing it, we often don’t.” the man looked at Stiles with a smile. “My mom used to say that.” Stiles said. 

The man looked to his wrist and then back at Stiles.“Well it’s time for me to get going. Lots to see and do.” The man said getting up from his chair, putting his hand out to shake Stiles’. 

“Well best of luck on your trip.” Stiles offered to the man as he shaked hands with him.

“It’s not goodbye yet. I’m sure we will meet again, Stiles.” The man said as he walked away and before Stiles even realized that there was no way for the man to have known his name the man was gone. He shrugged it off justifying it with weak excuses like "he probably heard the name at school while someone was making fun of him." 

Stiles left the coffee place and went home to get started on his homework. He noticed his dad still hadn’t come home which Stiles took relief to because he couldn’t be bothered to clean up vomit or spilled liquor off of the floor right now. Stiles went straight to his room and started on his work. He managed to finish it rather quickly. He looked at the digital clock sitting on his desk, the time was only 9:30pm. Which means Stiles had an entire hour to himself before he had to go to sleep. Stiles decided he would read and then go to sleep. 

The next day the cycle repeated again. Everything was ‘normal’ business since that day, and if Stiles was being honest he was really missing the stranger now, at least he had a genuine conversation with the monk looking dude. 

Weeks went by and nothing had changed, Stiles was still getting pushed around by Jackson and his lackeys. Derek was still doing nothing to stop him and Scott was still pretending it wasn’t happening. One day Jackson had even beaten Stiles up in the parking lot in front of Scott, and Stiles noticed that the man did not even bat an eye towards Stiles. But this week was special for Stiles, well today, October 22 was special and he wasn’t going to let anyone ruin it for him.. It was Stiles’ birthday. Stiles didn’t really celebrate his birthdays with parties after his mother passed, not that anyone would come even if he did. Instead Stiles would buy a cupcake, drive up to his favourite spot in beacon hills that overlooked the entire town, and just spent the entire afternoon talking to the wind, pretending he was having a conversation with his mom. This was her favourite place too, well she had many favourite places but out of all of them this was Stiles’ favourite. He and his mom would often come up here during the night and look at the constellations, Stiles could probably name all of them by now. So Stiles would often just park his jeep there and sit on the hood and forget his worries. The place was always empty, well usually empty, so Stiles found it to be soothing. 

Stiles was talking to the wind and just being free when he heard twigs snap and his head turned quickly in the direction of the sound. He was shocked to find the stranger from weeks ago, still in the weird monk outfit. Stiles was the first to speak. “It’s you again…” 

“Ahh so we meet again.” The man said moving towards Stiles slowly and gesturing to ask if he could take a seat on the hood of Stiles’ car as well. Stiles nodded and moved a little to give the man some room. 

“The night is beautiful, the stars are really shining bright today.” The man said. 

“Yeah, they really are.” Stiles said, not really having observed them earlier. 

The two quickly fell into a comfortable silence. Which was broken with: “Libra is really radiating tonight. You know what that means, it must be someone special’s birthday today.” the man said pointing to the constellation. 

Stiles huffed a little air. “I’ve never heard that one before.” 

“You haven’t? Hmm it’s quite common where I come from. The old myth goes, that each zodiac sign choses special children, special little children that they look after because they are destined for something creatures of Earth have never seen before. And every year on their birthday the zodiac sign of that child shines extra brightly to make sure that the child knows they are being looked after. So, I guess Libra’s special child’s birthday is today. ” The man explains.

“Huh...what do you know. It’s my birthday today, any chances Libra is shining for me?” Stiles said in a jokingly manner with a smile on his face. 

“I shine only for you Stiles.” The man whispered, but Stiles was able to hear it. 

Stiles jerked his body away from the stranger after what he heard and questioned the man confusingly. “What did you say?” 

The man took a deep breath and got off the hood of Stiles’ car, putting his hands up to show that he meant no harm to Stiles. “I’m a friend, not foe Stiles.” 

“How do you know my name. We never exchanged names.” Stiles responded

“I know the name of all the children I choose.” 

“What does that even mean? Look man, I don’t want any trouble, I’m going to get in my car and head back home. I’ll forget this ever happened, so just step away from the car.” Stiles said slowly as he moved towards the car. 

The man started moving away from the car but as he was moving he spoke: “The stars have chosen their soldier, there is no running from it Stiles.” 

Stiles had already gotten in his car, he turned it on and started to reverse so he could exit. As he exited he saw the man from his rear view mirror. Stiles breathed out air from his mouth and let relief fall over his body. Stiles drove straight home, and went straight to his room, ignoring the mess by the sofa which he could only assume was vomit and alcohol from his father’s digestive tract. As soon as he opened the door, the man was there, sitting on his desk with a book in his hand. The man looked up from his book and gave a smile to Stiles before starting to speak. 

“Alright then, time to get packed. Your training starts tomorrow.” 

“How...when...WHO ARE YOU?” Stiles whispered loudly trying not to raise any suspicion from his drunk father downstairs. 

“Alright i see this would go a lot faster if i just explain somethings to you. Firstly, my name is Libra. I chose you as a potential soldier for the holy war the day you were born. Well actually you were bound to be chosen thanks to your mother. Regardless, the next step: we test if you actually possess the strength to become a holy warrior. If you do, you will gain power and will get the honour to fight in the name of the Libra faction and help the Zodiac’s. If you fail the test you will die. It’s quite simple.” 

Stiles’ eyes widened. Of course he knew that there were scientifically unexplainable creatures alive on earth like Banshees, Werewolves, Kanimas and so many other things that go bump in the night, but this sounded way too far-fetched. “Wait, so you want me to fight in a war that I have no idea of, want no part of, and i get no choice in the matter? That sounds so fair.” Stiles said the last part sarcastically. “And what the hell did you say about my mother.”

“Alright i rarely say this, but i guess i was wrong. It didn’t go smoother after explaining it to you. Well there’s always plan B.” The man said placing a hand on Stiles and just like that Stiles had fallen asleep. 

When Stiles awoke he felt a little groggy. He woke to a room that was completely white, not a spot of colour, dust, or anything remotely solid. No gates to be seen anywhere, just a very large, white room.  
Stiles stood in silence for a minute before taking control of his breathing that was going rampant. Stiles noticed a tiny flicker occur in the lights of the room and not long after in the middle of the room, a projection or hologram of sorts appeared. It read: “Trial 1: Aries”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think. If people are interested I'll continue, I suspect this will be a long fic. Thank you for reading and once again make sure to tell me/show me if youd like to see more.


	2. Zodiac of Chaos - Aries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it seems theres plenty of people who enjoyed it and so I will e continuing. I am thinking maybe post once a week. Let me know what you think.
> 
> P.S:  
> [Guys please do not post this on other websites without my permission. It really does hurt my feelings when I see that happen to other authors/writers and don't know if I could personally handle that. Thank you for understanding and thank you for reading.]

**Stiles’ heartbeat quickly peaked, his breathing quickened, and needless to say he was alert. The room was changing, the walls' colour no longer the angelic white it was before, instead became a red that exuded bloodlust. The wall to his right had a weapon rack, and Stiles knew this wasn’t going to be fun.**

**Stiles heard a deep voice, a deep angry voice coming from the room but from no particular source.**

**“Not this again. Libra we’ve been through this. He is human! We don’t test humans here.” The voice said, clearly talking to the other man who had not long ago just knocked out Stiles.**

**“Aries he is not like the others. He has potential. I can sense it. A light that none other have had before him. Give him a chance.” Libra said**

**“Look at him Libra, he is nothing but skin and bones. You mean to tell me he will beat one of my Gladiators without any abilities or power to help him? Let the boy go Libra, and let him live his life, instead of dying here.”**

**Stiles’ eyes widened at hearing again that he may die here. “Yep, i’m 100% on board with the voice guy. I prefer not to die, soooo yeah just send me home, and we’ll forget this ever happened.” Stiles said with a smile, and hoping for the best.**

**Libra looked at him with an emotionless face, “You’re not going anywhere. You will pass these tests and join my faction. And That’s that. Oh, and another word out of you and I'll stitch those lips together.” Libra took his gaze off of Stiles and started speaking again, except this time, Stiles couldn’t understand what the man was saying.**

**“Aries, et eius fillium.” Libra said. And not a second later, there was a man standing in front of Stiles. The man was clearly muscular to the point where each muscle was protruding from the body, and looked no older than 35. He had a beard that screamed “manly”. And to say that Stiles was not aroused would have been nothing but a lie.**

**The man looked at Stiles, fixing his eyesight on him, and eyeing him head to toe before looking back to Libra. “Alright, i’ll let him take the test but his death will be on your hands.”**

**“I can manage that.” Libra said.  
Stiles was feeling no safer than he was before, especially since he keeps hearing about his potential death! “Oh you can manage that, can you? That’s amazing news! You know who can’t manage that? Hmm let me see… oh yeah, ME!”**

**Libra looked back at Stiles. "I thought I said not a word out of you!”**

**Stiles wasn’t having it though; “Look, I don’t know who any of you are, and to be honest I would love to find out if it weren’t for the fact that everyone keeps mentioning how I might die! So how about..” Stiles was interrupted.**

**“Stop your bickering. No one cares! Now listen up. My name is Aries, and this is your first trial. The rules are simple, pick a weapon from the rack, pick a gladiator to fight from the line, and fight the duel. If my gladiator wins you die, if you win my gladiator dies. Is that understood?”**

**“I..” Stiles was going to speak again, but he was stopped again.**

**“Ok good, pick up a weapon.” Aries said, not even giving Stiles a chance to reply to the question.**

**Stiles went to the rack and saw all the weapons. A javelin, scythe, greatsword, cutlass, scimitar, spear, and so many other weapons just lined up on the rack. He was skilled with none. Stiles kept looking it over, and decided to go with the spear. At least he could hold it up, and not to mention it would help him keep distance.**

**“Alright, now, to my right and left are my men. Pick one to fight from this line. And we shall test your strength today!” Aries said.**

**Stiles looked at each man, each wearing armor from head to toe and holding their weapon of choice. In the middle was Aries, standing wearing nothing but a simple shirt and short, and they looked like rags. If Stiles was being honest he’d rather fight the man himself, he was wearing no armor, and had no weapon in his hand, seemed like the safest choice. But was he even an option? Well technically the rule was to pick a man from the line, and Aries is standing in the line. But Stiles had to be sure.**

**“So, i just pick anyone from the line, and they’ll have to fight me?” Stiles asked, facing Aries.**

**“Yes, now hurry. We don’t have all day!” Aries said.**

**“I pick you.” Stiles said not hesitating.**

**Aries looked confused. “What?”**

**“I pick you. I want to fight you.” Stiles said with confidence.  
Aries started to laugh! “Libra, I thought you were supposed to pick smart children. Yet he is living proof of the fact that your pupils are not as smart as you say they are.” Aries said in his laughter. “It’s funny though, your mother picked me too. I guess mother like son.” Aries said moving towards Stiles. **

**Stiles had found that if he had stalled out a scenario long enough, he could often find a way out of the mess he had gotten himself into. So here goes: “How did you know my mother?”**

**“No more talking. Now it’s time to fight. Patience was one virtue I never really cared for.” Aries said charging at Stiles with his fist, making direct contact with Stiles’ abdomen sending him flying backwards.**

**Stiles hit the wall on the back, and the pain overwhelmed his brain. ‘So much for stalling’ he thought to himself.**

**“I guess that’s the end of that. At least your mother fought back. She was strong, she held her own; you, you’re pathetic and weak. You shame her by just existing. Do the world a favour and just die now...”**

**Hearing those words brought back memories of Jackson saying those exact same words to him. His entire life he had been bullied by people stronger than him and it always ended the same, with Stiles on the ground. And now was no different, his life depended on him fighting and he was once again on the floor.**

**“...the world doesn’t have room for weakness. You’re either strong or dead. There is no in between.” Aries finished saying**

**Stiles closed his eyes, took a breath in and started to push himself off the ground slowly so he could stand up. He was holding tightly onto the spear, using it as a crutch.  
“You’re going to have to do a lot better than that. At least be original. Like I haven’t heard ‘go kill yourself’ before. Hmph. Jackson could do better, and he’s working with half a brain. So yeah, you’re going to have to do a lot better than that to get on my nerves. As for the punch, didn’t even feel a thing.” Stiles said, clearly in pain. **

**“Look at yourself, you’re barely standing up! But I’m surprised you can even get up. Smart choice would have been to stay down, young one. At least then you would have lived to see another day perhaps but it seems you were destined to die by my hands. And so today we shall carry out what is destined to be.” Aries charged at Stiles again using the same formation he had last time, aiming for the same place he had last time. Stiles took notice of that, and he quickly moved slightly to the left, propping his spear so that it was where Stiles should have been. Before Aries even knew what had happened, he had a spear going through his fist. But Aries didn’t hesitate, flinch or even show any signs of pain.**

**Stiles was working off of pure adrenaline at this point. He used all the strength that he had and kept pushing the spear further into Aries’ fist until half of the spear had gone through the skin.**

**Aries still looked unphased, almost as if the spear wasn’t even there. He lifted his hand, broke the spear in half and took out the piercing end from his flesh. He smacked Stiles again, and before Stiles could even react, he was sent flying, hitting himself right into the weapon rack.**

**“I take it back Libra, he’s not stupid. He’s suicidal.” Aries said, anger starting to show on his face.**

**Stiles’ eyes widened, hearing that sentence just gave him an idea. Stiles grabbed the longsword from the weapon rack, and stood back up. The sword felt lighter than Stiles expected, perhaps his adrenaline was still aiding him.**

**“Look brother, he has yet survived another hit. I must say he is impressive indeed. Unfortunately those are the last words you’ll hear.” Aries said laughing.**

**Stiles started speaking as he moved towards Aries, slowly.“It makes you…” Stiles said before the air in his lungs escaped as coughs. “It makes you feel better doesn’t it? You hit those weaker than you and suddenly you feel powerful, you feel in control.” Stiles coughed again. “I have dealt with people like you my entire life. You’re all the same, you think you’re strong because you can prey on the weak. I’m going to show you that you are just as vulnerable as the rest of us!” Stiles screamed as he charged full speed at Aries.**

**“You truly do have a death wish” Aries stood in his place and as Stiles approached Aries, Aries took hold of Stiles’ hand and turned him around, in one swift motion. Aries pulled Stiles closer into his own chest; now Aries’ abdomen tightly pressed against Stiles’ back, with Aries’ hand interlocking Stiles’ neck in a choke hold. “Look brother, look at him die and hopefully you will learn not to choose humans....” Aries said unable to finish his sentence.**

**Stiles could barely move, but he had a plan. He had to stick to the plan. He was going all in, it was the moment of truth, Stiles thought to himself. Stiles lifted the sword from his hand, quickly and in one smooth motion, he pierced his own flesh with the blade. He went all the way, until he felt the blade exit, and hit flesh again, Aries’ abdomen, then he pushed further, and kept going until the hilt of the sword was touching Stiles’ abdomen. The blade,now completely entered through Stiles’ abdomen, and exiting through Aries’ back.**

**Aries had stopped talking and he pushed himself away from Stiles to unskew himself. The moment the blade left Aries’ flesh, he coughed up blood. Stiles turned around to see Aries, and looked him right in the eye, a look unwavering, and just for a second he saw it, on Aries’ face. It was fear.**

**Stiles’ body couldn’t hold itself up anymore, and the blade was the last blow it could handle, so the next thing Stiles saw was blackness, and the last thing he felt was the ground.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the near future, the story will focus heavily on Stiles and him becoming more independent/stronger.  
> The main sterek plot will start after that and we will tackle that when we get there. Thank you for reading!


	3. Life Holds Meaning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter!! Next chapter in 3 days...cuz I have almost finished it.

Stiles woke up feeling better than he had in years. The pillow his head rested on felt like a cloud, not that he knew what a cloud felt like, but assumed it’s how it would feel. Stiles’ eyes didn’t want to open, but he didn’t have a choice, as comfortable as he was he knew it wasn’t home. Stiles sat up straight, and looked around the room, seeing a man, Libra, with his eyes focused on a book. Stiles coughed, and with that Libra looked up at Stiles. 

“Ah, awake are we? You gave quite the performance out there.” Libra said with a smile on his face.

“I’m still alive.” Stiles said with wrinkles forming on his forehead. 

“Yeah...i guess you’d see it as a bad thing.” Libra said

“I didn’t…” Stiles tried to say but was cut off with Libra raising his hand. 

“Spare me the lies. I knew where it was headed the moment you picked up the sword. It was your only chance of winning, the only strategy that Aries wouldn’t expect. Which shows me that you can think. But it also shows me that you don’t care about yourself.” 

“I care! Of course I care.” Stiles said in a hushed whisper. 

“Do you remember that friend of mine that passed away a long time ago?” Libra asked still sitting in his chair, but no longer holding the book in his hand. 

Stiled nodded his hand in a “yes” motion. 

“Well let me tell you a story about her. You see, she came to us and said to us that she heard of the holy war and wanted to help.” Libra started but couldn’t continue because he could see the confusion on Stiles’ face. “You don’t know what the holy war is. Alright, well you see there are 13 zodiacs, from eldest to youngest: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.” 

“You said there were 13 of you, that’s only 12.” Stiles questioned. 

“You’re getting ahead of yourself. Patience Stiles! Okay where was I...ahh yes, Well the 12 of us were planning for the birth of our youngest brother, Ophiuchus. He was born and we were all so happy to have him, his beauty challenged even the brightest of stars.” Libra paused.

Stiles noticed Libra’s eyes, he’d seen that face before, a face that was mourning a loss. “He was murdered, wasn’t he? And ever since then you and his murderers have been at war.” Stiles asked quietly.   
Libra nodded his head in agreement, not at all surprised that Stiles could figure it out just from his face. “They killed our innocent baby brother. Aries lost it, he held back nothing and he destroyed so much of their land. And so began the holy war between angels and zodiacs. Which brings us back to my friend. Well she said she’d help in anyway she can. And she did exactly that, she would tend the wounds of the injured soldiers, cleaned for us, did whatever was needed to make our lives easier. And she did it all with a smile on her face. Then one day, a soldier, a friend, she was treating died. She didn’t cry, not a single tear. Instead she came to us and requested that she be tested with the trials so she can go to the front lines and fight with the rest. We accepted her request. She was tested, and during one of the tests she used her powers unintentionally... a huge mistake. Her powers showed us who she was. You see her soul was made in heaven, wings forged in heaven; she was nothing but pure angel, and seeing it enraged us all. We took our anger out on her. We tortured her for days thinking she was a spy. We beat her, and humiliated her infront of all the soldiers. One day I went to her and asked her, was it worth it? She looked straight at me and said: ‘He was a child, not even a day old and my brothers and sisters killed him. So if this is what it takes to right the the wrongs done by them, then I will accept it with a smile.’ I got mad at her; I thought she was lying. So not long after, we did something, something we all would live to regret…” Libra’s eyes started to tear up. Taking a deep breath in he continued: “We clipped her wings off. And you see the moment an angel’s wings are taken from them, they fall to earth, and they can never return to heaven.   
Later we found out that she was telling the truth. We were speechless… But there was nothing we could do, she had already fallen! So she was forced to go to Earth. She joined your people and as 100 years passed she travelled, she settled in the town of Beacon hills, she fell in love and she was happy. And she was still as beautiful as the first day I had met her, she kept her youth thanks to the soul forged in heaven. But it wouldn’t hold out too much longer. I visited her often, each time apologizing to her. She would look at me and smile everytime and tell me about how she’s so happy with her life, with her husband, with her baby boy. How everyday she looks at him she sees home. She said as long as her baby boy was with her, heaven was never far away, she eventually changed the word heaven out for home.Then her heavenly soul started to fade, and I could see it, she was dying. Some days she wouldn’t even recognize her family, let alone little old me. She didn’t deserve any of it, all she ever tried to do was undo the wrongs done by her people, and all she got in return was hate. And she never once cried, not when she was tortured, not when she was hurting, not when she was dying. And I think it’s because she stopped caring about what happened to her. I can’t help but see that part of her in you.” 

Stiles had started to tear up, almost as if his brain had picked up on something he hadn’t comprehended yet; “What was her name?” Stiles asked. 

“You know her name, young one, she was your mother afterall.” Libra said. 

Stiles closed his eyes and started to cry. In between the cries he spoke: “Why...why tell me...this?” 

“Because if you keep not caring about what happens to you, you’re going to end up dead a lot sooner than you need to be, young one.” Libra said moving closer to Stiles’ bed and putting his hand over Stiles’ hand. “And you may not care what happens to you, but there are people out there who will.” Libra said. 

Stiles scoffed, wiping his tears away. “There’s no one...no friends. Dad’s too drunk to even notice or care.” 

“What a human way to think! Stiles, the people in your life right now are not the only people you affect. Think of all the people you’ll never get to meet, think of all the heartache you won’t be able to feel, or all the good friends you’ll miss out on. Think of all the good and bad memories that you have yet to make. Think of all the bad jokes you could make. Think Stiles, the future is just waiting to be discovered.” Libra paused… “And so I’ve decided to not let you finish the rest of the trials, you’d just use reckless tactics again and we’ll be back at step one.” Libra said. 

“Why do you even care? You were okay with me dying before.” 

“I care because I promised your mom I would look out for you! She was my friend, and whether you care for yourself or not I will always care. I would never let any creature kill you.” Libra said. 

“Then where have you been my entire life! Have you not seen how they treat me...so much for keeping your promise.”

“Stiles...Zodiac’s are not allowed to interfere unless you’re close to death, like you were after you stupidly decided to stab yourself.” 

“I want to do the trials.” Stiles said. 

“No; out of the question.”

“You have my word. I will not try to kill myself. But I’m going to become strong, and then I'm going home.” Stiles said with his eyes unwavering. 

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Libra smiled and agreed. In fact Libra had no intention of stopping Stiles, he couldn't even if he wanted to. Once trials began the only way to stop them was death or completion. 

The door opened, interrupting both Libra and Stiles was Aries. “Young one, your tactic was smart and yet stupid. I must say, you had me scared for a while, and I don’t scare easily.” 

Stiles smiled and looked at Aries from his bed: “I told you I'd show you that you’re just as vulnerable.” 

Aries smiled; “I always knew that you were special!” 

Stiles and Libra rolled their eyes.   
“You’ve passed my test, you have my approval, but I must warn you my test is the easiest of them all. You’ll be going to Taurus next and take my advice, be patient with him.” Aries said and then heading for the door, but just before he exit he turned around and said: “I’m sorry. Your mother...she was… we don’t deserve your forgiveness, and one day I expect you will want revenge and we will be ready for when that day comes.” Aries said. 

“ She would want us to forget it. You have my forgiveness, and all though I don’t speak for my mom, something tells me she never blamed any of you. Not for a second.” Stiles said. 

“You are definitely your mother’s son. Never forget that and we might make a soldier out of you yet.” Aries said exiting the door. 

“Rest young one. Taurus’ trial is tomorrow, and he will hold nothing back.” Libra said. 

Stiles closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was it? Uneventful maybe...but it goes uphill from here.


	4. Zodiac of Stubbornness - Taurus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's just come to my attention that there are probably a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes. I apologize, I do my best to edit but it's not my first language. So it's a little hard. That might also explain some of the weird dialogue. 
> 
> I hope it's still good though! 
> 
> P.S: Thank you all for reading and liking and commenting. It means the world to me and it really does motivate me to write more.

Stiles woke up to bickering between Libra and another man who was clearly someone important if the golden armor indicated anything. Stiles sat straight up and waited for the two men to notice that he had awoken. The two men were still arguing, not that Stiles understood anything, it was in another language after all. They were speaking what sounded like latin, if Stiles had to guess. After a minute of waiting Stiles decided to take matters into his own hands, so he faked a cough, hoping the two would realize. 

The two men looked at him, and both smiled, while the man in the golden armor stepped forward and offered Stiles his hand while he spoke: “Hi, my name is Taurus, and I must say Stiles I have heard a lot of good things about you from Aries. And my elder brother rarely praises anyone, let alone a puny human.”

“Thanks?” Stiles said confused, how was he supposed to respond to that? “Um, is it time for your trial?” 

“Yes it is. We will see you in the trial room soon.” Taurus said and then turning to leave the room. 

“Come on get dressed up and meet us in the room when you’re ready.” Libra said following Taurus. 

Stiles put on the clothes that he saw on the edge of the bed. It was a black shirt, a kurta, and a black bottom piece (a salwar). Both pieces had gold outline streaks running on the sides. Stiles definitely liked the feeling of the clothes and he could definitely use more of these in his wardrobe. Stiles walked out of the room, and then into the room marked “trial room”. 

“Alright let’s get started.” Taurus said as soon as he saw Stiles. Taurus flicked his fingers and the room changed colours to gold from its natural white state. Stiles noticed the same flicker in the room that he noticed when Aries started his trial in the room. And just like that Stiles could no longer see Libra or Taurus. In fact he couldn’t see anything, it was all just gold. There was nothing to grab, or touch other than the walls and a hologram timer in the middle of the room that started counting up.

Stiles knew the test had started but he wasn’t sure what he had to do. No instructions were given. Stiles gave it some thought, and he figured it must be a puzzle of some sorts, he would have to find the hidden door, or the exit and the sooner he finds it the better he does. Stiles started searching for any button or hidden doors, or even trapdoors. An hour went by and he found nothing. Stiles felt like he had searched the entire room. Another hour went by and still no luck. Stiles started hitting the walls, and hoped something would happen. Still no luck though. Another 2 hours go by and Stiles was still in the room, the timer still counting. Stiles started to feel like there was no lever, button, or door to find. It must be something else he thought. Stiles decided to take a seat and just think it through. 

After a minute of just sitting and thinking he remembered Aries’ words; “...be patient with him”. That’s what Aries said about Taurus. Stiles smiled, he knew what he had to do. The task was actually quite simple. He just had to wait….he had to just wait. So Stiles went into the middle of the room and laid down, looking up at the hologram timer which read “4 hours 10 minutes and 35 seconds. Stiles closed his eyes for a while and opened them, still facing the timer. Stiles noticed it immediately. The timer now read “3 hours 50 minutes and 10 seconds”. That’s it, he just had to wait it out. 

Stiles waited and waited, eventually falling asleep. He woke up and found the timer read “5 hours 10 minutes and 2 seconds”. “Shit!” Stiles shouted. “I guess that means I have to be awake for the entire time.” Stiles sighed, and started to motivate himself to stay awake and do nothing for 5 hours. 

It wasn’t easy, Stiles just sat in the middle, focusing on his breathing, and making sure to stay awake. The clock counting down. 

The clock was down to 2 hours now, and Stiles could feel the end was near. What felt like a year later, the clock was down to 30 minutes. Stiles started to get excited, but he focused on his breathing and he watched the timer go down to 20 minutes, 10 minutes. 1 minutes. 30 seconds.   
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...and then it was over. The room reverted back to its original state.

Libra and Taurus were there too. 

“I passed!” Stiles said cheering out loud! He was celebrating, but when he looked at Taurus there was no indication of celebration. So Stiles looked at him and said… “What?” 

“Stiles, the test isn’t over.” Libra said. 

“A test’s purpose is to see what you’ve learned. How can I test you on something without teaching you first.” Taurus said with a smile.

“Of course, why would it be that simple?” Stiles said, sarcasm in his tone. 

And just like that he was back in the room with the timer. And the timer started counting up again just like last time. Stiles smiled because he knew what had to be done now. He just had to sit and wait. That’s exactly what he did...but the timer kept going up. It wasn’t going down. “The rules have changed.” Stiles whispered. So Stiles went to the initial strategy and started looking for things, and he found that the timer decreased as he stayed active. “It’s the opposite...I have to stay active this time.” He was doing anything to stay active, and in no time the clock was at 0 again. 

“WOOOOOOOOOOOH” Stiles celebrated again, but he looked at the face of Libra and Taurus and he knew it wasn’t over yet. “You’re kidding me!” Stiles sighed and just like that he was back in the room. He had to figure out what the rule was this time; it took him 2 hours to figure out the rule, and so he had to wait another 2 hours to get out of the room. He celebrated his victory again, happy that he was out of the room. But he wasn’t out for too long, before he was back in the test room. He was figuring out the rule of the room when it hit him… ‘how can i test you on something without teaching you first.’ “the rooms aren’t the only test...there are two tests.” Stiles whispered. After that he worked hard to figure out the rule of the room. It took him a total of 3 hours to get out of that room. As soon as he did, he sat down and just looked at Taurus and Libra. He waited patiently, and stared at them while they stared at him. 

Stiles saw Libra say something to Taurus, but he couldn’t hear them.

“I think he’s figured it out.” Libra said to Taurus. 

“Yes, but it’s not enough to figure it out. He must have confidence in it, brother. So let’s see how confident he is.” Taurus said to Libra. 

Just like that Stiles was back in another room. Stiles wasn't shocked. He was actually expecting it. So he figured out the rule for the room and got out in shortest time yet, 10 minutes. And as soon as he got out, he just sat down and started staring at the two men again. 

Stiles saw Taurus move forward towards Stiles, smiling at him. “Well done young one.” Taurus said. 

“Are we done?” Stiles said with an emotionless face. 

“Yes we’re done.” Taurus replied. 

“Have I passed?” Stiles asked. 

Taurus looked back at Libra then back at Stiles and said: “you’ve passed, only if you can tell me what you’ve learned...in two words or less.”

Stiles opened his mouth to answer Taurus, but quickly closed his mouth and just looked at Taurus instead and slowly blinked his eyes. 

Taurus got the message and laughed out loud as he patted Stiles' shoulder. “You’ve got a good one on your hands Libra. He’ll make a fine addition.” Taurus said as he left the room. 

Libra came forward. “Well done. Most people get stuck in his test. Some even end up spending their entire lives here, they die doing this test, and you do it in less than a day. It’s amazing young one, but why didn’t you answer him?” 

“There were two lessons he was teaching me...the first one was obvious...patience. That one I learned from the rooms, but the second lesson wasn’t as obvious. Every time the room ended I celebrated immediately, I got too excited about something I didn’t even know for certain. He was teaching me that my actions speak louder than my words. So when he asked me what have I learned in one word; it was a test in itself to see if I had learned the second lesson for sure, because no one word could describe both lessons, but my actions could. Simply stay quiet and that meant I had learned both patience and about my actions.” Stiles explained to Libra. 

“Impressive indeed.” Libra said.

“But you already knew that...didn’t you?” Stiles said. 

“I did. Just wanted to see if you did.” 

“Boy am I glad that’s over.” Stiles said. 

Libra laughed and walked Stiles out of the room. “Get some rest, the next test is tomorrow.” 

“Alright. And thank you for clothes by the way. They’re beautiful, and so comfortable!” Stiles said. 

“You’re welcome. See you soon Stiles.” 

“See you soon.” Stiles smiled and walked into his room, and went to bed. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep. His eyes were already heavy from the mentally exhausting day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gemini is next, and I wonder what shenanigans Stiles will br a part of next.


	5. Zodiac of Mischief - Gemini

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: chapter contains violence and perhaps emotional triggers
> 
> I hope all of you enjoy this chapter!

“Wakey wakey” Stiles heard someone say, as he started to wake up. Stile rubbed his eyes, and when he opened them he was seeing doubles of the person standing in front of him. So he rubbed his eyes again, and really opened them wide, and when he saw who it was, his eyes started to tear. “Mom?” Stiles said in a broken voice. 

Stiles saw his mom look at him with confusion. Then she started speaking to him. “I’m sorry, you must be confused. I am not your mother. You must have me confused with someone else.”

“But...you look exactly like her.” Stiles said. 

“Well then you’re mom must be really pretty.” the woman said laughing and then stopping abruptly. “I’m not sure what to tell you young one. They must have really done a number on you with the torture, if you’re thinking im your mom.” 

“Wait what did you just say? Torture? What do you mean torture?” Stiles said. 

“Wow, it must have been really bad if you don’t even know where you are or what happened to you. You’re in the dungeon for a reason sweetie. Not sure what you did to be here but the zodiacs always have a reason.” the lady said. 

Stiles looked around and he didn’t even realize that he wasn’t in his room anymore. He was in a room made purely of stone. Definitely had a dungeon vibe. Stiles figured out what was happening. It was a trial. He didn’t know who’s trial it was but he was seriously hating on them right now. Stiles got up and looked at the lady, taking her hands in his. The woman’s eyes arched up, but before she could push away Stiles started speaking. “Your name is Claudia. My name is Genim Stilinski, but you’ll call me Stiles as a nickname. You don’t know me right now but you will be my mom. And you’ll hold me tight in your arms everyday. You’ll give me coffee when i’m young so that I can pretend to be a grownup. Then when I’m older you’ll take me to actual coffee shops so we can just sit and talk. You’ll make me feel better on bad days, you’ll be there every time I need you. You will love me so much, and I just wanted you to know that I loved you too. I loved being hugged by you because it was the only time I felt safe. I loved every moment I spent with you and I didn’t tell you that enough and I’m so sorry that I didn’t get to tell you all this before and that's something I'll have to live with.” Stiles started to tear, and before he could finish what he was going to say, Claudia pulled Stiles in for a hug. And to Stiles it felt no different from his mother’s hugs, he felt so safe. 

“I’m so sorry they are doing this to you, just so they can get to me. I don’t mind them torturing me but I can’t imagine the harm they’ll do to you. I am so sorry.” The woman whispered to Stiles. 

Stiles pulled back from his mom, and wiped away the tears. “I don’t understand. What do you mean by all of that?” 

“My people killed their brother and they are torturing me to get even. I can only imagine this is part of their plan. They want me to get emotionally attached to you, and really think that you’re my son from the future. And I'm sure they have messed with your memories to make you think that I am your mother but I'm not. Aries or Taurus or Virgo, or one of them is going to come in and kill you in front of me. It’s just another way to torture me. In a way it is working; I feel horrible that there is no way I can protect you from them, that they will hurt you just to get to me.” Claudia said. 

Stiles thought it through, there was no way to make the woman in front of him believe that she was indeed his mother. Stiles put aside his thoughts because he’ll take this time with her, even as a stranger. 

\--- Libra’s and Gemini’s point of view from outside the room --- 

“This is a new low even for you brother!” Libra said 

“We can’t live in the past Libra. We can never undo what we did to his mother, our friend, and he needs to realize that there is no right side in wars. Now is a good time as any. Plus It is my job as Gemini to play mind games, and this is the one that will test him best.”. 

\--- back to Stiles’ point of view --- 

The two were interrupted by a man that Stiles recognized. It was Aries, except Stiles could see it in the eyes...it wasn’t the Aries he knew, this one had anger ingrained into his eyes and there was nothing but anger. 

Aries opened the door and as soon as he did Claudia jumped in front of Stiles and started to speak. “Please don’t hurt him. If he deserves it then please hurt him for his crime, do not punish him because of me.” 

Aries grabbed Claudia and threw her aside, beating her up. Stiles tried to stop Aries but he wasn’t strong enough. He couldn’t do anything to stop it. Aries beat Claudia relentlessly. After a good 20 minutes Aries left, with just as much anger in his eyes as he came with. 

Stiles rushed to Claudia and tried to help her up, but she kept her distance from him. “Stay away from me. If they even think i’ve fallen a liking to you, they will torture you just to get to me. I’m happy that this time it was me, but unfortunately that won’t be the case every time.”   
Stiles didn’t understand….what was his trial? Was he supposed to just sit here and watch as his mother was beaten and tortured? Was that it? Were they testing if he was strong enough to handle this intense amount of pain, because the answer was no, no he couldn’t. Stiles couldn’t handle this much longer...so he needed to figure it out quick. 

Stiles thought while Claudia healed thanks to her angelic soul. Stiles figured that this was all just an illusion to mess with him. The only thing was how does he break the illusion? It could be as simple as knowing it’s an illusion, but if that was the case then he would have broken it already. It had to be something else. He could try killing himself, maybe that would do the trick. But he promised Libra he wouldn’t, and he didn’t want to break that promise. Then an idea came to Stiles’ head...another idea that he wasn’t fond of yet it wouldn't be breaking his promise.. 

“You’re an angel aren’t you?” Stiles asked his mom, already knowing the answer. 

“Yes child.” 

“How come they torture you instead of killing you?” Stiles asked, and as soon as the words left his mouth he felt the same sorrow as when he was at his mom’s funeral. 

“Zodiac’s want me to suffer and pay for my crime. They want all angels to pay for their crime. That’s why they hire creatures of earth to fight against angels. Werewolves and whatnot. The creatures of earth may not be as strong as the Zodiacs, but because the job of angels is to protect all earthly creatures, including the supernatural we can’t harm them. It is the best army against angels.” Claudia said, with no sign that she had just been beaten up mercilessly by Aries. 

Stiles finally knew why the Zodiac’s weren’t fighting their own war, strategically speaking it was the best way to go. But Stiles couldn’t help but wonder… “It doesn’t make sense. Why kill the baby? I mean there is absolutely no reason to, but i’m assuming the Angels aren’t exactly going around killing whoever they want. They must have had a reason.” 

“The Angels have a prophecy about the Zodiacs. It states that when 12 zodiacs have been born the world will be in equilibrium between good and evil. That is why the first 12 Zodiac’s were celebrated, we rejoiced at the birth of each. But the prophecy goes to say; When 12 have been reached there shall be no more and no less. One more and the world falls into chaos, one less and the world falls into conformity. So when the angels heard about the 13th zodiac being born, they took action. They knew that it would start a war, but as creatures that protect Earth, it was worth it to them.” 

Although Stiles still had the reckless idea, he did find this conversation to be enlightening.   
“Would you mind helping me with something, I fear that I am too much of a human to do it myself.” Stiles asked.   
“What is it?” Claudia asked. 

“Can you break a piece of the wall, or the bars for me?” Stiles asked. 

“If you’re hoping to escape,I should tell you that you’re strategy is flawed. The bars and the walls are just for show. The real thing keeping you in is their magic.” 

“No, not trying to escape...well yes trying to escape but not in the way you think.” Stiles said. 

“Alright.” Claudia said breaking one of the bars from the cell and handing it over to Stiles. 

Stiles merely looked at it and thanked his mom for her help. 

“I know you won’t believe me, but I am your son. You’re going to have a great life after you get out of here. A husband that loves you, a son that cherishes you, and together the 3 of you will be a family.” Stiles said 

\--- Libra’s and Gemini’s point of view from outside the room --- 

“Oh Stiles I do not like where this is going.” Libra said. 

“Brother what aren’t you telling me?” Gemini asked. 

“His strategies can be reckless at times. During his fight with Aries he stabbed himself in order to land a devastating blow to Aries.” Libra said while sighing. 

Gemini’s eyebrows arched; “He was able to land a blow on Aries? That’s impressive indeed, but what’s the point of a victory if you aren’t alive after to rejoice in it.”

“That’s the point. He doesn’t care about life or death. Much like his mother, once he gets an idea in his head, he goes all in. And I fear that the pole we just saw him with is going to be a weapon for one of his suicide attempts.” Libra said. 

“Well if he does that, he will awaken from the illusion for sure. So he will pass my test if he shocks his body that hard. If he lives after...that's an entirely different problem.” Gemini said. 

“Promise me brother, if he tries to kill himself you will not pass him.” Libra asked, hoping Gemini will agree. 

“I can see that you worry about him...fine I will not pass him if he breaks the illusion by trying to kill himself and lives after. Although that does make it harder to break the illusion. The point of the test is to drive people insane to the point where death is the only option that would give you sweet relief. So he will have to figure out another way before he decides to kill himself, and trust me brother eventually he will decide to kill himself. They always do.”

\--- back to Stiles’ point of view ---

Stiles held the pole in his hand and waited for the right moment. While waiting he talked to his mom like the good old days. Even though she didn’t believe that she was speaking to her son, he still cherished the time with her as always. 

Eventually he saw Aries coming towards the cell and he knew it was time to initiate his plan.  
He picked up the pole, looked at his mother and said “I love you. Please remember that!” He took the pole and thrust it right through his mother’s chest. Stiles’ face was emotionless but his eyes betrayed him and let out tears. 

Aries on the other hand lost control at the sight of losing his punching bag so to say. He looked at Stiles, and just from the pure rage oozing out of his eyes Stiles knew this wasn’t going to be pleasant. 

Aries pinned Stiles down to the ground, and under his weight Stiles couldn’t move, not even to struggle not that he was trying to. Stiles merely waited for the punches to make contact. And they did, the skin to skin contact not hurting as much as the sting that he felt after. But eventually it all felt the same. He couldn’t tell when the punches landed anymore, the pain was so constant that it all felt the same to him. And just like that, his eyes shut. Mere seconds later, his eyes opening back in the white test room. 

“That’s it, no more trials for you.” Libra said as he walked straight to Stiles. “YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T KILL YOURSELF!” 

“Brother calm down. The boy should be celebrated after all he did just pass my test.” Gemini said to Libra.

“Gemini you said that he would not be passed if he tried to kill himself. You gave me your word.” Libra shouted in anger. 

“Brother you forget your place. You are in MY room. You are currently under MY supervision, and lest we forget this is MY test! So please refrain from telling me what I can and cannot do. I did in fact promise you that he would not pass if he attempted to kill himself and had he done so I would not have passed him. However it was Aries’ hands who tried to kill him. So from where I stand he has broken no promises to you. Celebrate that he utilized whatever loopholes he could find. He thought like a true Gemini, better than any of my previous students and my test is not for the weak Libra, you knew that coming in. They all decide to kill themselves, and that’s the easy way out. He had to find another solution and he did. We shall applaud him, not belittle or guilt. Is that understood little brother?” 

Libra sighed, “Yes brother.”   
“Good! Now that we have cleared that up. We should allow the young soldier to rest. He goes to brother Cancer tomorrow and we all know that is an emotional roller coaster.” Gemini said in a voice that sounded relaxed yet still powerful. 

“Very well. Go rest Stiles, I shall be in shortly.” 

“Before you leave Stiles. Me and your mother were close. Best of friends at one point. She used to call me Genim. I can’t believe she named you Genim, even after everything we did to her. A part of me can’t help but think it’s her way of reminding us about what I’ve done, torturing me, but knowing her she did it to show us that she forgave us a long time ago. I also wanted you to know. That my illusions hold truths to them...so all of her answers were real. That’s all.” 

Stiles didn’t know what he should say in response, instead he nodded and made his way to his room but he did not go further than the inside of the door. He left the door open a little so he could hear what they were saying. 

As soon as Stiles stepped inside, Libra started to speak. “He can’t pass a test because of semantics. That is not how we do things here brother. You gave me your word.” Libra said in a hushed tone. 

Stiles felt a little hurt that Libra would go behind his back like that. Stiles understood that Libra has his reasons but instead of discussing it with Stiles present, he chose not to. Stiles couldn’t help but feel like he was back at high school as the kids whispered rumors about him behind his back. He felt silly thinking it was anything like that but it didn’t stop from feeling like that.

“I thought we cleared this already.” Gemini rolled his eyes. “If you are so mad that he passed, just fail him when he gets to your test. Make up some reason for his failure. It’s not like he’d be able to do much about it considering he’s human. And who knows if you’re lucky he might even fail a trial before he gets to yours. You know sister Virgo can go a little overboard sometimes.” Gemini said in a very relaxed tone. 

“I will not have a false ruling in my trial. We do not conduct ourselves in that manner.” Libra said. 

“Ugh. You and your morality. Always jabbering on about doing the right thing and following rules and yet here you are not being able to follow your own rule. It was simple, you said he couldn’t kill himself, and last time I checked he didn’t. So no rules were broken. By your standards he should pass and that’s exactly what happened.” Gemini was getting really bored repeating the same thing over and over again. “Look little brother, I will admit to you that he is a special one, and not just because he is lady Claudia’s son but because his mind works unlike any other. He will make a great addition to the army, WHEN he passes all the tests. And mark my words, he will pass them all. You can wish that he fails one, but he will not. His eyes show it all. So I will say this for the last time, the only way that boy will not become a part of the Zodiac army is if you fail him in your trial. Now, I will hear no more of this nonsense. I am tired, and I must go.” 

“Very well brother.” Libra said in response and making his way to Stiles’ room. 

Stiles quickly made his way to the bed and jumped on it.

Libra squinted his eyes at the boy in front of him then sighed before continuing to speak; “You heard all of that didn’t you?” 

Stiles didn’t have to say anything it was made plenty obvious from his face that he did indeed hear it. “I hope you know that when it does come to my test, I will not fail you on purpose, i would never do that.” Libra said. It wasn't that Libra didn't want him to do the tests and neither did he want Stiles to fail any. It was just the methods he was using; Libra is known for thinking rationally and everything about Stiles isn't. 

“I’m kind of getting sick of this.” Stiles said.   
“The trials are supposed to be difficult, so it’s only natural you feel sick.” Libra said trying to comfort Stiles. 

“Not the trials; that I’m okay with. It’s the fact that no one seems to be telling me the whole truth. It’s always just partial truths and the rest you tell me when it’s convenient for you guys to tell me. Do you know what that makes me feel like...actually don’t answer. I’ll tell you what it makes me feel like. It makes me feel like I’m back at high school with the kids whispering rumors behind my back, excluding me on purpose. It makes me feel like I’m less than...and compared to all of you I might not be as strong, or as smart, or even as important, but if it concerns me or my mother I have the right to know about it. I don’t care if it will hurt my feelings, or if it’s a sensitive topic.” Stiles said not taking a single breath. 

“Are you done?” Libra asked with his eyes arching. 

“No;I'm not done…” 

The room stayed silent for a moment, broken by the words spoken by Libra. “Are you going to finish?” 

“Well I can’t think when you put me on the spot like that, but the point here is that just be straightforward with me, no more half truths.” 

“Alright then. You might want to take a seat. There is something I need to fill you in on and you may not be too happy about it.” Libra said.

“I’m already sitting.” Stiles said with a blank face. 

“Well, how do I say this...You’ve been here what? 3 days now? The thing is 3 days in our realm means 3 months on Earth.” Libra said slowly, trying to drag out the sentence as much as he could. He imagined it would soften the blow if he said it slower. He was clearly mistaken.

Stiles’ face became the epitome of horror.“3 MONTHS! Oh NO NO NO NO NO! This is a joke! It has to be!” 

“Not a joke. Unfortunately this is the truth. Time works differently here.” 

“That means I’ve already missed half the semester. How am I ever going to catch up? How am I ever going to graduate?....My dad! He’s probably worried sick about me.” Stiles stayed silent for a while. Libra could see that the boy was thinking, analyzing every single option in his head and suddenly Stiles spoke again: “Take me back.” 

“Stiles, you can’t go back. You’ve begun the trials you need to finish them or else the zodiacs will demand your death.” Libra said with what seemed to be sadness on his face. 

“I have finished 3 trials...which means I still have 9 more to go. If it takes me 1 day per trial, that means 9 days here and 9 months on earth. That makes a total of a year...I’ll miss my chance to graduate, not to mention my dad’s going to kill me when I get back. So either I die from the zodiacs, or my life goes to shit. Awesome, love the choices I've been given.” Stiles said throwing his hands in the air and letting them fall to his side. 

“I know this may not be all that helpful, but people in Beacon hills don’t seem to be looking for you. Even your father has not yet noticed your absence. So why are you eager to go back there? What can Beacon hills offer you that we can’t?” Libra said fully expecting Stiles to get louder and angrier than he already was.

Stiles wasn’t exactly shocked to hear that no one was looking for him. It’s not like people at school or even in the town really knew him or even cared about him. But hearing that his dad didn’t even notice his absence, and it’s been 3 months. That one hit Stiles right in the heart. He knew his father had become an insufferable drunk, and just overall miserable but Stiles always thought that deep down his father cared, or noticed all the things that Stiles did for him. Turns out he was wrong. So maybe Libra was right to ask what Beacon hills had to offer, ‘cuz looking back at it Stiles can’t really find much. That’s why he wanted to leave the town and although this is not what he had planned, it might be what he needs. “You’re right.” Stiles said with a defeated tone.

Libra’s eyes widened and jaw dropped at the surprise of hearing that. “I am?... I mean of course I am.”

Stiles rolled his eyes, “There is nothing waiting for me back there. And as much as I had other plans I'm not sure how well they would have worked out. At least like this I can become stronger and maybe even learn more about my mom. Clearly there is more to her than I ever knew.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear you’ll stay. You should rest now. Tomorrow you will meet with Cancer.” Libra said as he headed towards the exit. 

Stiles nodded his head, and layed in bed, his brain in deep thought but eventually falling prey to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL THAT WAS A RIDE! Let me know what you guys thought? Are you a Gemini, what do you think? Did i do you dirty or was I accurate?


	6. Beacon Hills

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [ This chapter recalls everything that’s been happening in Beacon hills while Stiles has been gone.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm a little (very) late but with everything that's been happening all my assignments got made online and so there was a lot of hassle setting up a lot of the stuff my school required. But we are back on track now!

First day missing (evening of Stiles’ birthday) - 

Stiles’ dad came home and for some reason it felt weird. He couldn’t place his finger on what was out of place, and it was starting to bug him. After a few hours he fell asleep, that’s being generous; it would be more accurate to say his body shutdown from all the beer and booze he’d been chugging. Sheriff Stilinski woke up the next day feeling wet and sticky. Something was still nagging him in the back of his head, but he was too hungover to care. He decided to clean himself up and the mess he had created on the sofa from the vomit. A piece of him knew that he was lucky to have not choked on his own vomit during his sleep. He was surprised though, he usually didn’t wake up with vomit on him, or even around him. The Sheriff made his way out of the house after doing all the cleaning. He noticed that Stiles’ cars was still not there. The voice in the back of his head getting stronger. Something was telling him that things aren't adding up. He didn’t think much of it though ‘cuz he rarely ever saw his son anymore. So he went to work, continuing his normal routine of working, and then getting hammered after. 

Not much was different at school. No one seemed to notice anything off. In all of Stiles’ classes he was marked absent. But that was the norm, he rarely showed up to class anyways, unless he was attend to hand in an assignment. So the teachers felt nothing was off. The students were the same, they hardly saw him in school; so no they didn’t notice anything, why would they? 

Days turned to weeks and no one seemed to notice the boy was nowhere to be seen. A month later Stiles’ jeep was found exactly where it was left by no one other than Jackson. At first Jackson had thought that Stiles was nearby, so he decided to wait for him and mess with Stiles. But after waiting 20 minutes, Jackson got tired and instead decided to mess with the car, by cutting the wires for the brakes. Jackson left right after. 

Another month passed, nothing had changed at school or class. And as Stilinski’s marks started dropping the teachers did start to worry a little, but none worried enough to look into the matter. That was just the case unfortunately. It was around this time that Stiles’ jeep was found by two strangers who were hiking in the area. They had called a tow truck, and they had impounded the car. A notice had been sent to the address under which the car was registered, and a car poster was posted in the police station just in case. It was almost like the universe was trying to help the people of the town find Stiles, but the people were oblivious. They happened to ignore all the signs, all the clues, and that’s what lead them here. Sheriff Stilinski was working in the same office as the poster board, where pictures of lost pets, wanted criminals, missing people, and now a car that had been found were hanging. But he had missed it. 

Another month passed, and although Stiles’ dad was still clueless about everything, people at school had started to make their own truths about Stiles. After Jackson had cut the brakes of his car, Jackson didn’t see Stiles anymore and so he assumed Stiles was either in the hospital because he got into an accident, or going through some legal problems because he was driving without functional brakes. But this story got morphed the more it got told; people started saying how Stiles had actually died during a car accident because he wanted the attention that bad. Other people started saying that he was in the hospital for one reason or another. 

Scott heard the rumors and immediately became worried. The first time he heard the rumor was when he was walking down the hall and heard some people talk about how Stiles was in the hospital after getting into an accident. Scott was worried but decided the best thing to do was to ignore them. If something was wrong Stiles would have told him, Scott said in his mind to help himself feel at ease. But as the day went by Scott heard more and more rumors about Stiles; so feeling at ease wasn’t an option. At lunch he had taken a seat at the normal table alongside his friends. 

“Did you guys hear Stilinski's been in some kind of trouble? There’s rumors going around about him.” Isaac said as he put some fries into his mouth. 

Scott’s eyes turned up, “Yeah i’ve been hearing it all around school. But i’ve heard so many different things, I don’t know which one is true.” Scott said.

“Probably none.” Lydia said. Everyone looking at her with a confused look. “Do i need to explain everything to you idiots?” The group didn’t respond. “Fine! Think about it; All of these stories about him are popping up out of nowhere. The only explanation is that people are hearing an old story and putting their own twist on it. This means that they don’t actually know the truth. I’m sure the truth is out there somewhere but it’s not in this school. No one in this school even talks to Stilinski so the only person who would know the truth is probably his dad or his mom.” 

“His mom’s dead.” Derek said without really giving any thought. The group gawked at Derek. 

“Yeah, she is; but how do you know?” Scott asked, because he knew that the only person Stiles told that to was, well Scott.

“His mom and my mom were friends.” Derek said emotionlessly. The group had accepted the answer and continued the conversation. Jackson had told them how he had found the car but failed to mention how he had cut the brakes of the car. 

“Why are we even talking about this? Who cares what happened to that freak? I think the world’s a better place without a freak like him in it.” Erica said, and Boyd agreeing quickly. 

Scott didn’t say anything, instead nodded his head and went on with his day. Scott decided he would go to Stiles’ house after school and just make sure everything is okay. 

At the end of the day Scott was going to go to Stiles’ house, but then was reminded he had practice for Lacrosse. So he quickly changed and went to practice. After practice Scott had completely forgotten about Stiles and going to check up on him. Instead he went home, took a shower, and fell asleep. Scott still heard rumors at school but he had just tuned them out, saying that none of these people actually knew Stiles, and that if something was wrong Stiles would have called Scott, or that Stiles’ father would have told his mom and she would have told him. Not to mention if Stiles was in the hospital, his mother would have definitely told him by now. So Scott ignored it all and just went on with his days as he normally would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cancer is next!! Release date is sunday!


	7. Zodiac of Loyalty - Cancer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to Stiles' point of view and back to the trials

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I love all the interaction that's happening with the story and so I want to address some of the comments!   
> 1) YES, I TOO WANTED TO SLAP ALL OF THE CHARACTERS AS I WAS WRITING THE STORY!!   
> 2) Stiles and Derek are the end goal and I promise you it's not abusive in any way or form! And it wont be an easy transition either!! Not if I have anything to say about it!   
> 3) one order of BAMF stiles coming up...soon!

Stiles woke up feeling better than he had in years. Was it because he was learning more about himself? Or was it because he had started to let go of things and people that had been chaining him to the ground. Either way he liked the feeling of waking up and being in control of his own life, well partially. "This better not be a dream or a test. I swear I will…"

As he was speaking he saw that at the foot of the bed was an armor, a complete set of armor...in his size from the looks of it. Stiles knew this wasn't a good sign. Instead of putting it on Stiles ignored it and went out to the hall. He looked around the empty white hall and decided to take a tiny tour of the large house. Afterall he had only seen two rooms so far, the trial room and his bedroom, which were basically opposite from each other. 

Stiles started to walk down the hall and noticed that there wasn't really much to indicate which direction he was going in. After walking for a few minutes he looked back and saw that the path behind him had completely changed. "That's not weird at all." Stiles sighed, "getting lost in 5 minutes. That's a personal best" he continued to say. He kept walking and came across his first room with the door labelled in a writing he couldn't read. When he tried to open the door it disappeared and suddenly it was just a wall. You wouldn't even be able to tell there was ever a door there unless you had seen it. Stiles kept walking until he saw another door and just like the first one, the door vanished when Stiles tried to open it. Stiles assumed it was a way to keep guests out of the rooms they were not wanted in. Stiles thought that if that was true then it was just better to go back to his room 'cuz he wouldn't really be able to do anything else really. So he decided to walk back...but Stiles couldn't really tell if he was going back the way he came...there were no landmarks or signs or anything to indicate where he had come from. It was just guesswork now.

After what seemed like an hour of walking, Stiles still didn't find his room. He was getting kind of tired and if he was being honest, very frustrated. As if the universe had heard his thoughts, Stiles could hear footsteps coming his way. So he stood still waiting for the person to arrive so that he could ask for directions. 

Stiles saw a man come around the corner and as the man saw Stiles his eyes widened. "Ah, Mr. Stilinski you nearly gave me a scare. What are you doing out here?" The man said? 

"Well I was just walking around and I seem to have lost my way. And you are…?"

"How rude of me. I am Cancer. And this castle is not a place that a human should be walking around alone. It's pretty easy to get lost and stay lost if you don't know what you're doing. Why don't I escort you back to your room and then we can get started with my trial. How does that sound?" The man said in a calm voice. 

Stiles quite enjoyed this man's nice and relaxed demeanor, it was unlike all the other zodiacs he had met so far. They were all "do this or else you DIE." This was a nice change. Stiles followed the man closely and not 2 minutes later he had arrived back to his room. Stiles could have sworn that the room was supposed to be on the other side, but when he looked at the door on the other side it said "Trial Room". . This entire mansion just didn't make any sense. As they entered Stiles was turned around by Cancer and Cancer was now looking directly into Stiles' eyes. No one said a word, it was silent and it was only a moment later that the silence was broken by Libra entering the room. Cancer nodded in the direction of his brother and then immediately looked back to Stiles and said: "well we're ready to begin, are you?" 

Stiles felt awkward for a second, this man just went from looking into his soul to as if nothing happened and Stiles was taken aback by that to say the least. "We aren't in the trial room. Is that okay? I mean if that is then yeah I'm ready." 

"For today's test this is the perfect place. My test is a simple game of chess. Do you know how to play?" Cancer said with a small smile. 

"Yeah I do...wait it's just chess?" 

Cancer nodded his head in agreement and he snapped his fingers and suddenly there was a table with chess pieces all ready to go. Stiles noticed that the pieces were not the typical ones you'd see, instead they looked awfully familiar to the people he knew. However the pieces closer to Cancer's side were the typical pieces that you'd expect to see. "Why are my pieces different?" Stiles questioned. 

"Oh well these pieces simply reflect the people you have connections to...stronger the emotional connection the more important the piece." Cancer said. 

Stiles looked back at the pieces and saw pieces in the shape of his tormentors, there was no way he had any emotional connection with them, so this was already off to a rough start. "Them…" Stiles pointed to the pawns on the chess board "there is no way we have any emotional connections." 

"Fear is an emotion Stiles." Cancer said again with his nonchalant smile still on his face. "Well let's get started." Cancer said as he picked up one his pawns and moved it ahead 2 spaces. 

Stiles didn't really have much of an option and decided to follow his opponent's lead. He moved a pawn piece 2 spaces such that his and cancer's pawn pieces were head to head. A mimicked move. 

The game continued on for a while and Stiles was the first one to lose a piece...a pawn in the shape of what looked like Jackson. 

"I sure hope that was one of your tormentors." Cancer said...still smiling. 

Stiles' head shot right up after hearing that. What did the man mean? Why would it matter? "What do you mean by that?" Stiles asked. Cancer simply shrugged and let Stiles decide his next move but Stiles was starting to doubt the game...there was no way this was just chess. All the trials up until now had been tricky and difficult, a game of chess...that just didn't fit the pattern. He figured there was more to it and started to think about how the pieces here could be connected to the people they look like. "How did he even know all the people I'm emotionally attached to, Stiles thought. "Wait is that why he looked into my eyes...he was looking through my memories and getting information on who to make the pieces look like." Stiles thought to himself and it was all starting to click. From there the next conclusion was just a hop and a skip away: If the piece dies here then the person dies too. Isn't that how it's been in all the movies ever. "If the piece dies here, what happens to the person in real life?" Stiles asked Cancer. 

"Let's find out" Cancer said snapping and suddenly there was a mirror in which you could see that Jackson was being carried to the hospital. One more snap and the mirror was gone. Stiles was in awe...and not in a good way. 

"How can you involve others in this...they have nothing to do with this! Stop this now!" Stiles said. 

"Well if you want it to stop that's quite easy, just beat me…" Cancer was interrupted.

"I thought you were different but I guess I was wrong."Stiles stopped looking at Cancer with disgust and decided to be more serious. "Fine you want to play chess, let's play chess" Stiles said confidently. A very little known factoid about Stiles, he had never lost a match to anyone, except his mother so this was going to be a piece of pie. 

A few more moves had gone by and Cancer had noticed the playing style...the strategy, identical to someone else's. He smirked and said "seems our beautiful Claudia passed on more than just her eyes to you." 

Stiles looked up "I have never lost to anyone except her, so unless you're better than my mom you better get ready to lose, you manipulative idiot." 

"I love the confidence...but I am the one who taught your mother how to play chess. Hahahaha. She could never really beat me." Cancer said with a cocky smile. It didn't last long as Libra had chimed in, " if I remember correctly brother, she passed your exam with flying colours!"

Cancer was clearly upset at his brother's words, not because of any insult but rather because it made him look less cool in front of his guest. "She passed the test, but did she really beat me?" 

Stiles on the other hand was in deep thought about his mother's playing style, it wasn't very rational to begin with. The point was to make seemingly unrelated moves and hide your actual moves inside that mess. But he couldn't afford to do that for much longer, the longer the game went on for, the more likely it would be that more pieces of his would die...and he wanted this game to end. He focused on his pieces...there was nothing. He had no ideas, and at this rate there was no hope of winning. Libra and Cancer's conversation had completely been ignored by Stiles. After minutes of thinking and carefully planning, Stiles had layed out two: options for himself: 1) play the game normally and do my best to win, 2) admit defeat and end the game. Each option had pros and cons; the first would give him the best chance to win and protect his dad, the king piece. But it would cost the lives of other people, people he didn't like but people nevertheless. The second option would lead to his father's demise but end up saving a lot of people...people he didn't exactly feel like saving and it would probably mean he fails the exam. Stiles' eyes betrayed him once again, his eyes started to tear up...almost as if his body already knew the decision he would make. He lifted his fingers and picked up the king piece, and instead of placing it back down to a different spot he simply put the piece down on it's back as he said "I surrender." At this point Stiles was holding nothing back, the tears were just pouring out and his nose had snot dripping down out of it. 

"Hahahahha it seems I simply wasn't able to break you. Ahh well I'll have plenty of chances to do so." Cancer said laughingly. 

Stiles stopped crying, wiping away his tears and snot. And as he sniffled he said " wait… wait I'm confused! What's happening?" 

Libra chimed in: "You just passed his trial." 

"But how? I just lost." 

Cancer comforted stiles by placing his hand on the boy's shoulders and said: "I am Cancer, Zodiac of Loyalty. My trial teaches people about caring and respect, even if it's something you learn indirectly." 

"But...but I betrayed my family, how..how could you say I was loyal?" 

"Sometimes the people we think we need to be loyal to are the ones we need to let go of the most. They might have earned that loyalty but what did they do to maintain it?" Cancer asked and before Stiles could answer Libra started speaking: " By sacrificing your father to save the people who you clearly do not care for showed that you have the ability to give up on relationships and make judgement calls not simply on the basis of 'because they are family' but rather the value." 

"And stiles your father is safe. Actually, no one was ever in any danger. It really is just chess. The hologram earlier was just a fake illusion." 

Stiles started to have doubts about these tests...today he had been the most scared he had ever felt. He had actually thought that he had killed his father, and that would be a scar he could never heal from. "What if the next tests required me to do something similar but...next time it might not be an illusion." Stiles thought to himself only to be removed from his thinking by Libra. 

"What has got you thinking, young one?" 

"Its just….I'm just...I… I don't know." Stiles' brain was firing at all cylinders, his body wanted to Express his pain, his confusion, his sadness but he just couldn't find the right words. And before he knew it, he was back in tears. 

Libra saw the young man, and he knew exactly what was wrong. It wasn't the first time he saw someone like this. "I know exactly what you need. Come on follow me." Libra said with a reassuring smile. Together they walked to a room not too far from the test room. It was a library, well not quite as big, but it was filled with enough books to be considered one. Stiles had loved reading since he was a kid, it started all thanks to his mother reading to him every night, after that reading became a comfort thing. 

"This room belonged to your mother, whenever she wasn't helping someone she was in here reading. We don't really come here often but we decided to keep it the same, as a memory of her. Feel free to do as you like, I'm sure she'd be more than welcome to share it with you." 

Stiles' eyes had stopped leaking water, and now they were beaming. As Stiles started looking around, Libra started to walk out, but before he could Stiles spoke out. "Wait a second!" 

"Yes Stiles?" 

"My mother, do you think…" Stiles took a deep breath in, "do you think she'd be proud of me?"

"No. I think she would be angry. I think she would be mad, horrified, scared, and distraught. She would never want her child to go through these, and the mere fact that you're here would make her blood boil." Libra said honestly remembering the promise he had made to be upfront with him; and from the reaction Stiles gave it was obvious it wasn't what he wanted to hear.

Stiles was feeling bitter sweet, "Thank you...for not lying. I really do appreciate it." 

"Oh and Stiles one more thing, please try not to burn the room down." 

"How would I even do that?" 

"The same way you managed to set your kitchen on fire while trying to make cereal." Libra said. 

Stiles wasn't embarrassed of that moment, wasn't his proudest moment but in his defense cereals are really hard to make...right? Libra had exited the room after causing mild embarrassment in Stiles, on the other hand Stiles wasted no time delving into the books his mother had collected in hopes to get to know her better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This character, Cancer, is based on my Ex. They were so strong and loyal and just calm all the time. You could see their smile and it would just calm you down; but when the gloves came off they were a force to be reckoned with.   
> To all my peeps out there, loyalty is not bred it is earned! Surround yourself with people who respect you and treat you the same!   
> See you all soon!!


	8. The Zodiacs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of background on the Zodiacs!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I missed last week...some of you wont let me live it down, you know who you are hahahah.  
> Anyways to make it up I'm uploading 2 chapters!!

Stiles didn't know where to begin, feeling too excited, so much so that his small framed body could barely contain all of it. He shook his body in all directions looking like a fish out of water, In hopes of calming his body down. It didn't work! 

His eyes had already started scanning the room and one particular book had caught his attention...a brown leather book with a title "The Zodiac Tribes" written on it. It looked almost hidden but in plain sight. His interest piqued and he picked the book up from the shelf and started to open it; as he flipped the pages he admired the notes that had been scribbled on them. He knew instantly that it was his mother's for sure. He stopped on one page and read the note that she had written: "Nope! Nopity, nopity, NOPE! Not happening." It was right beside the sentence: "the student must then drink the blood of the ancestors of the tribe to become one with them." Suddenly Stiles understood his mother's hesitation and disgust clearly shown on his face. Stiles kept on flipping through the pages until he came to a chapter called "History of the Signs - evolving stars". The passage read: 

"The world was born centuries ago through a means that no mortal could comprehend but today we shall try to uncover not the world itself but one of the major celestial beings that govern it: the zodiacs. It is known that there are 12 zodiacs and that this number hasn't changed for millenias and is expected to never change again. Although it is not known for certain why new signs may not form, it is easy to hypothesize based on current knowledge. Zodiacs are part of the classification known as Celestials; meaning they base their survival off of a source of energy other than those found on Earth. For Zodiacs, their main energy source is light from stars although artificial light seems to suffice as well. The zodiacs are also associated with their constellation in the sky. So it is hypothesized that until new stars come into the sky it's impossible for a new zodiac to be since it won't have a constellation. This is the current hypothesis for why there have been no new zodiacs, simply due to lack of enough new stars." 

Stiles got quite intrigued and wanted to learn more; information like this could be of great use in the future trials or just in general. He looked to see who had written the book and the author's name was nowhere to be found. He flipped to the table of contents and looked for a topic that'd be of interest.  
"Table of contents:  
1 - Zodiacs Anatomy (pg1)  
2 - Zodiac tribes (pg57)  
3 - History of the signs (pg103)  
4 - Trial system (pg206) " 

To Stiles the last topic seemed most interesting, perhaps because it was most relevant. He quickly flipped to the page and started reading: 

"The zodiacs have had a system for recruiting people onto their tribes since the Centurion War (pg 157). It allowed them to imbue people with certain talents. However they found that imbuing a person a talent other than their own signs' would lead to no change in the human. So they decided to make the trial system to see which tribe the human belonged to since there was no tracking system in place. However this turned out to be a very time consuming and tedious task since they would have to test every single individual. So, the zodiacs came up with a system called the 'Systematic Indicator of General Natural traits' or SIGN for short. This is a tracking system to ensure the zodiacs rotate their constellations from oldest to youngest in the sky and depending on which constellation you were born in, that was the gift you were imbued with. This new tracking system made it much easier for the zodiacs to imbue gifts properly and create their own tribes. And although they are called separate tribes, each tribe works together to ensure proper functioning (refer back to pg68).” 

Stiles found this to be a little hard to digest and confusing; “wait a second, book with no author says what now!” Stiles said out loud in a room with just him and books. “If they don’t need this trial system anymore, why exactly am i doing it? Can’t they just give me the gift of Libra and then call it a day?” His face and eyes widened when he thought about how many times he almost died during the trials: “THEY TRIED TO KILL ME….MULTIPLE TIMES!” Stiles said in clear anger. “OH WAIT UNTIL THEY GET A PIECE OF MY BONY FISTS UP THEIR ASSES!” After he had calmed down a little bit, he started to think about the war, "why make people go through trials? If it's a war they should want as many people as they can get, whether they have skill or not is irrelevant. Sheer numbers should be priority...if the soldiers die in the trials, what use are they." Stiles hadn't gotten any closer to figuring it out and his eyes was starting to feel the side effects of being stuck in the squinting position. He decided this problem was one that had to be discussed with one of the constellations. He quietly put the book down and picked up another at random, not really caring what came his way. He read the title: "Super: creatures of the dark". He shrugged off the vague name and started to read; the book had no table of contents and delved straight into the book. The beginning was rather boring for Stiles since he knew about most of the information. It was talking about the different kinds of species on earth: werewolves, humans, wraiths, banshees, and so on. Stiles skipped a few pages and landed on a page with a picture, it wasn't a really old picture but the quality hinted it wasnt recent either, seemed like it was from his parents' generation maybe. The picture also felt rather familiar to him, he read the caption in the book: "Figure 7: a picture that shows multiple species intertwined into a single pack in 1988." Stiles' eyes went back to the picture looking at the trees in the background and it had hit him! "WAIT A MINUTE! That's the edge of the forest in Beacon Hills." He said loudly " which means this must be the Hale pack from that time. Huh what a small world." 

Stiles read and read until he fell asleep only to be woken by footsteps. 

"It's just me." Aries said with a playful tone. Stiles rubbed his eyes and spoke in a hushed voice "is it time for my trial?" 

"Yes, Sister Leo is ready for you."

"Ahh alrighty, lead the way Mr.muscles." Stiles said as he closed the book and stood up. "Ahh how come you came, is Libra busy?" 

"Hes already at the room, I wanted to come and retrieve you myself. I'd like to see how this trial goes." 

The two started making their way to the trial room.

"So it's safe to assume that it wont be very fun for me...any tips?" 

"Unfortunately not, but I wish you the best!" There was silence and not moments later they arrived at their destination. Aries opened the door, and motioned for Stiles to enter. There were two figures, a man and a woman, already in the room and as soon as Stiles stepped in the woman wasted no time in speaking. 

"Hello Stiles. My name is Leona Brightstar."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up in 5 mins!


	9. Zodiac of Pride - Leo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to the trials!

My name is Leona Brightstar, call me Leo for short. Libra here tells me of your great potential and I have heard Aries speak highly of you too. He has even come to witness the trial. Which brings me to tell you, my trial unlike the others is one that will either be the easiest or the hardest. Oh and one last thing, unlike the other trials you do have a time limit, 1 minute. That's all! The goal is simple, there will appear a random task on the screen once we begin, you have 1 minute to complete the task, no matter what it is. If you do, you pass, if you don't, you fail. Any questions?" 

Stiles started speaking like his life depended on it...in a way it did. "Yeah actually lots of questions! I was reading this book and it said that you can just give me the power of Libra since I was born under that sign. Why not do that? Also...why make all your recruits go through this? I mean doesn't that just limit your army? And also how do you all eat light from stars? Why have so many rooms if there are only 12 people living in it? Are all of your names…" 

"I should have clarified. Any questions about the trial? The rest you can ask Libra. Nor do I care about this or have the energy to deal with a teen who speaks 1000 words per minute." Leo said concisely and to the point. 

"No..I guess not." Stiles replied with disappointment clearly filling his expression. 

"Then we shall see you soon." Soon after the room changed and the Zodiacs were nowhere to be seen. Instead they were replaced with a large screen floating in the center of the room. It read: Task- translate the following: tays bumhle ni eth afec fo fedeat.  
It might as well have been gibberish because Stiles didn't recognize the language and there's no way he could get it right in a minute. It'd be a miracle if anyone could do this in a minute. Stiles started sweating and his brain firing at all cylinders to try and figure out how he could solve this; if Stiles was good at one thing it was bullshitting but if he was being totally honest he’d rather avoid bullshitting to a celestial being who possessed the power to literally smite him to his death. He was 100% sure though that because of his mother there would be no way the Zodiacs would ever harm him...but then he thought about how Aries was ready to murder him less than a week ago and he knew clearly who Stiles’ mother was, so perhaps it wasn’t the safest bet. He was taken out of his thought process by a loud buzzer going off. 

“Great...I wasted my entire time thinking about something clearly not related to the topic at hand...great job Stiles; way to focus!” Stiles said to himself clearly annoyed at himself, at the task, at the Zodiacs. 

Leo walked up to him as the room reverted back to its original state… “Now is your time to shine, translate it” Leo said in a demanding tone. 

“I …” Stiles began before being abruptly cut off. 

“You have one chance! Don’t waste it on gibberish or stalling. Tactics like that are for cowards and Gemini; and from what I am told you are neither.” Leo said knowing very well what Stiles was going to do, it’s what everyone wants to do when they are expected to know the answer but don’t. They stall; they make up wild lies. Very few are willing to give up their pride and say three simple words: “I don’t know”. Little did Stiles know, that’s all he had to say...those three words would save him.  
Aries watched from the side, as did Libra. Both emotionless, unflinching faces, and eyes locked onto Stiles’ lips. It was Aries who spoke first, for no better reason than this was taking way too long.

“Sister, might you tell him his punishment. Perhaps that will motivate him to speak faster.” Aries said with an evil grin. 

“Punishment? What punishment...isn’t the punishment that I failed the test?” Stiles said bewildered. 

Leo laughed heartily, “failing is the consequence, not the punishment. The punishment shall be...hmm shall we make it interesting; death would be too boring. How about stuck in the worst moment of your life..forever?” 

Stiles looked at her in horror, he had plenty of horrible moments, but he knew very well which was his worst...without a doubt it was his mother’s death and he did not feel like being stuck in that moment forever. Rage started boiling inside of him and the anger from feeling incompetent didnt help the situation. 

Leo, unaware of Stiles’ internal turmoil, started to speak as if to demand that an answer be spoken… “Listen here…” She was cut short by a voice of despair. 

“NO! YOU LISTEN! YOU GIVE ME AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK AND THEN ASK FOR AN ANSWER...DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT MAKES ME FEEL? OOOOOOHHHHHHHH BUT WHY WOULD YOU CARE? YOU’RE GREAT CELESTIAL BEINGS! THEN YOU GO ON TO SAY THAT YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE ME RE-LIVE THE DEATH OF MY MOTHER FOREVER…” 

As soon as that was said, the three Zodiacs’ faces dropped; they had completely forgotten about the fact that the worst moment in his life would of course be related to Claudia, how could it not be! Aries had never seen Leo’s face so red...was it anger? Sadness? Aries thought to himself. 

“...YOU KNOW WHAT I DON'T EVEN CARE! OF COURSE I DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION! THERE'S NO WAY ANYONE COULD UNLESS YOU SPOKE THE LANGUAGE ALREADY! YOU ARE ALL DESPICABLE IDIOTS WITH NO HEART, AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IS A MONSTER, I’M SICK AND TIRED OF LOOKING AT ALL OF YOU! IM TIRED OF LISTENING TO ALL OF YOU!. 

Leo’s face was as red as a tomato and she finally gave out. She grabbed stiles by the collar and lifted him up, looking him in the eye, and at this point in time Stiles had become completely quiet. He became aware of the fact that if he spoke another word it might very well be his last. 

Leo spoke calmly: “Monsters...you say we are monsters. Very well, let me show you what these monsters can do!” Leo opened her eyes wide and her eyes started to glow yellow, as yellow as the sun itself. Stiles couldn’t help but look into them and as he did, he felt his eyes burning away and still he couldn’t stop looking. Leo opened her mouth and said no words, but shrieking waves coming out of her mouth deafened Stiles’ ears. It hurt, hurt every cell of his being and yet all he wanted to do was keep listening to it; he couldn’t help it. Then it all stopped all at once. 

“Those so called monsters that you were so sick and tired of, now you won’t have to ever hear or see them ever again. In fact, you won’t hear or see anything ever again." Those words weren't meant for Stiles to hear but she spoke them directed at him. 

Leo put stiles down back on the ground and made her way out of the room, just as she was about to exit through the door she turned around and said to Libra, "brother, pass on my congratulations to your pupil, he has passed my test...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please dont hate me....okay you can hate a little but I mean what did you expect? It couldnt staybsinple forever...he shall overcome, I promise!!


	10. Point Blank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Events unfolding in Beacon Hills

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo....that happened....Hasn't this year just been the most eventful....your boy had to move back to Korea and lets just say that was stressful as hell. But everything is okay now...lets get this show back on the road!

*back in Beacon Hills* 

"Derek tell everyone we are having a pack meeting this Friday night. Invite your friends too, they need to hear it too." Talia said as she continued to make breakfast. 

"Sure thing mom. What's it about?" He said as he sat down at the kitchen table. 

"Hopefully it's nothing but things have been weird in town lately and we're just going to get everyone on the same page." 

"Sounds like a plan." Derek said as he bit his toast and started to walk away with the bread held between his lips. "Later mom" he mumbled. 

Derek made his way to his car that he got on his 17th birthday. Started her up and made his way to school. He quickly parked where he always parked and looked around to see if the rest of his friends had arrived, he got really good at picking out their cars. As he looked around he noticed Jackson's sports car, and Lydia's nice economically friendly Toyota. How those two ended up together, Derek would never understand. He felt weird though, like something was missing. He couldn't quite pinpoint it and his wolf had taken note of it too...something wasn't quite right. If he was being honest he had been having this feeling for quite sometime and it really was a bit annoying. He shook it off and continued to walk into the school. He tried to keep a low profile whenever he could but at school everyone knew him or at least knew of him and they all wanted to talk to him. It got boring and tiring really quick, so he tried his best to ignore the people and eventually people idolized him from afar but it didn't stop certain people from coming up and starting a one sided conversation.

He saw his friends huddled around Isacc's locker and so he quickly made his way there. As he walked up he did a small wave and started to speak "my mom said you should all come to the pack meeting tomorrow night. She wants to talk about some weird stuff." 

"Really dude? On a Friday?" Jackson said clearly disappointed. 

"Yeah man, does your mom think we have nothing better to do on a Friday night?" Isacc added. 

Derek shrugged and responded in a I-couldn't-care-less tone "you don't have to come, but keep in mind my mom asked for you to be there...so your absence will be noted." 

"Yeah, last time we skipped on one of her events she made me chop onions for four hours. I think I'll cooperate" Boyd said; the others quickly following behind him and showing their approval by nodding. And as if destiny, the school bell rang indicating the first class was about to begin. 

The group quickly dispersed and started to make their way to their classes. The day went by quickly and Friday classes were no different. Everything was mundane, life had been very quiet...but it didn't feel right. Something felt off, but Derrk couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. And Derek was really starting to get sick of this feeling. It was frustrating knowing that something was wrong but not being able to figure out exactly what. As Friday classes came to an end Derek sent a message to his friends " pack meeting - dont come at your own risk. Meet you guys there." He made his way home and saw the entire pack had gathered in the living room. Fitting 70 people was a struggle even with a house this size. The Hale pack was the largest pack in the town afterall. 

Derek made his way to his room, put his stuff down and went back to the living room. He looked around for his sisters and immediately walked towards them the moment he saw them near the lamp in the corner of the room. "So when is it all starting?" He said.

"Mom said 5 minutes? Where are your friends?" Cora said 

"Probably on their way." 

"You better hope they come quickly" Laura added.

"Their problem if they don't." 

Claudia made her way into the room and all chit chat stopped, all eyes on her. "Thank you all of you for coming today. I wish I could say it was for good news but the town…: she was interrupted by Derek's friends entering, who all bowed their head to show their apologies.   
"As I was saying, today's meeting is not a good one. I must warn all of you that there is an unknown creature walking around town. No one has seen it yet. Our trustful druids have felt the energy of something lingering around for five or so months. At first it was thought that it was just passing by, but the energy still lingers in the town. It is possible that they have gone and it's just the energy that remains but we really can’t be sure. However, no unexpected deaths or situations have been reported recently and that’s a good sign.” Talia was interrupted by a man who had walked straight up to her and whispered in her ear. 

“I’ve just been told that the druids have managed to find the residence that the energy was last seen at. I’ll personally accompany the druids and do my best to ensure that no harm comes to our pack. In the meantime I ask that everyone stay alert and travel together. Safety is our first priority. Thank you all for coming. Please enjoy each other's company as I attend to these matters.” 

On her way out Taliah signalled Derek and his siblings to follow her with a face that could scare Death himself away. So they didn’t hesitate and immediately made their way out of the room and as soon as they had caught up, their mother started talking once again. 

“Do you guys remember aunt Claudia?” Talia asked. 

They all nodded affirmatively   
“Mom, why are you bringing up aunt Claudia all of the sudden?” Cora asked.

“Cora, you stay home! Help your father take care of the pack” Talia said. Cora wasn’t too happy to be excluded but she clearly didn't have a choice in this matter so she did as she was told. As soon as she had gone Talia resumed to talk to Laura and Derek. “Lets go, I’ll explain everything on the way…” She walked towards the exit; Derek and Laura looked at each other before following their mother to the car. Once they got in, Laura’s curious mind started asking questions immediately: “Mom, are you going to explain what’s happening, or what?” 

“The house I was talking about earlier, it’s Claudia’s house. Which means that we as the Hales must help no matter what the situation is. It simply can’t be helped.” 

“Wait...is anyone hurt?” Laura questioned. 

“We don’t think so, otherwise they would have reported it by now. But I’m bringing you guys along just in case something goes wrong. They have a son, I’m not sure if you remember, but he’s the same age as Derek, so only a year younger than you Laura. If his father is injured in any way, both of you must get him to safety first no matter what. Do you understand?”   
Derek knew immediately that the boy she was talking about was Stiles, and merely at his description, Derek’s wolf had started to lose control. He was starting to get anxious without a reason again. 

“Yeah mom...but you said nothing’s been reported. And I mean wouldn’t the Sheriff have done so by now if something was wrong?” Laura said and Derek agreed after having thought about it and it oddly provided him with some sense of ease.

“I am just being cautious. We have no way to know what has happened; we haven’t kept in touch with them unfortunately but this can help change that. I just hope that they are okay.” 

The rest of the ride was silent and once they had made it to the house they saw five druids standing in front of the house. The Hales made their way out of the car and towards the druids. One druid who looked like he had seen his fair share of battles started talking. 

“The energy coming from this house is immensely powerful, the house is basically drowning in it. I wouldn’t be shocked if the creature is in the house. But I only sense one living thing in the house...and it’s giving off a Human aura.” 

“Can we be sure it’s not a shapeshifter?” Talia asked. 

“Not unless the shapeshifter had help from a mage or witch to mask his aura. It’s very unlikely. Not to mention that a shapeshifter could never release this much energy, it's just unthinkable. This much power in one person is just unheard of. So I’m inclined to say that it is indeed a human inside.” The druid said in a matter of fact tone. 

Talia trusted the man, he had advised her in many tough decisions and she may not have always listened to him but the inputs he offered were always valued. So she made her way towards the house, the druids right behind her and both Derek and Laura right behind them, his wolf bouncing with energy and anxiety. Beads of sweat had started to form on Derek's skin even though it wasn't especially hot. As Talia knocked on the door, she reminded her children of the plan they had agreed upon earlier.

The group waited for the door to open, but no one came. She knocked again...still no response. Their senses weren't picking up any strange sounds or smells from inside the house and there didn't seem to be any immediate threat. 

"Maybe he's sleeping? We could come back at a later time. It doesn't feel like anything is wrong or out of place." Derek said quietly. 

"I'm afraid, we need to get in there, we don't know what creature left this energy trail. The sooner we start analyzing the better." The druid stated. 

Talia stared at them contemplating her choices. She decided it was better to be safe than sorry. She'd rather be labeled "crazy" then potentially ignore a threat. She especially couldn't half ass anything with the Stilinskis; not after all that Claudia had done for the Hales. She put her hand on the doorknob and applied just enough strength to break it.   
"Abazcus take your team to the source immediately and waste no time. Kids you're with me, stay close and stay alert. First sign of danger, yell and retreat! Understood?" She said sternly. 

Everyone nodded and felt a bit safer knowing that their leader wasn't panicking, rather had clear instructions laid out for them. 

Everyone entered the door one by one, the druids wasting no time to go to source, climbing their way up the stairs to the second floor of the house. Talia followed right behind and kept her kids behind her. The druids stopped in front of a plain wooden door and Abazcus whispered "this is it, its strongest here." Talia pushed the door open and immediately flashing her Alpha eyes...but it was nothing. An empty room, just like the druids had said. 

"Mom, the footsteps...someone is coming this way…" Derek whispered turning his back to his mom, and facing the wooden door that had just been opened. 

Talia turned around and saw a man walking up the stairs, she relaxed the moment she saw the familiar characteristics. It was John, she took a breath in and moved in front of her kids once again. "Before you even say anything, I can…" Taliah's nose was assaulted with the stench of liquor. How did she not smell that earlier? She could see the kids had picked up on it too. The man wasn't fazed though, not at all. There were intruders, sure he knew some of them but nevertheless intruders. 

"Taliah? Wh...what are you doing?"


	11. The Pharmatician

*back to Stiles* 

Aries and Libra stood shocked and baffled by what just happened. They had seen their sister use her curse towards many but never on a human. Well this human did have a tendency to be a little much but all that aside still a human. 

Stiles stood still, doing nothing, thinking nothing...he simply didn't know what had happened and a part of him was denying it. 

Aries noticed Stiles' eyes had started to tear up; no doubt that the external calm facade was breaking apart, starting with internal turmoil. Aries quickly picked up Stiles and as he ran out of the room he spoke "I'll make the seal, he'll be ready by tomorrow I promise." Libra caught in awe...was he dreaming? First his sister curses a human and now his war hungry brother wants to be the one to help him. "What in fresh hell is going on today?" 

Stiles felt the muscular shoulders and the tears on his skin. He knew he was being carried somewhere and at this point in time he couldn't care less where to.

Aries arrived at his own room and put Stiles down, he took the dust laying on one side of the weapon rack and made a symbol on Stiles' neck. 

Stiles felt the warm fingers tracing a shape on his neck, he didn't hesitate and just then he felt even greater warmth...it was soft, caring, and kind. They were lips… 

Aries kissed Stikes' neck on top of the symbol and as he did the symbol disappeared into Stiles' skin.

Stiles heard tiny sounds, he started seeing fuzzy lights and eventually it all came into focus...he could hear and see again. 

"Listen closely...this isn't a permanent fix. You could last two or three days with what I just did. In that time you have to either get Leo to remove the curse or visit our physician and beg for his help. In my opinion you have better chances with the physician." 

Stiles had all of two seconds to process the information before relying: "Would you mind taking me to him? I tend to get lost in these hallways."

"I wish I could but I can't...Don't get me wrong, I'd love to take you but none of us know where his room is. It kind of just appears when you need it most." 

"Why does this sound like another test?" Stiles responded with an emotionless face. He had exhausted all of his emotional energy at this point and didn't really care anymore. 

Aries put his right arm to the nape of his neck and put on a fake smile. "That's just how it goes around here...but you don't have much time. Your next test is tomorrow. If I were you I'd better start apologizing to Leo or start looking for the physician...still if I know my little sister at all, then I know that it's probably easier to find the physician. Start walking and opening doors, one of them has to be the right one?" 

"Why does that sound like a plan I would come up with?...well, even if it weren't for the test tomorrow I kind of want my senses back, so I better start knocking on some doors." 

Stiles walked towards the door and into the hallway. He saw all the doors and walked to the nearest one, and low and behold it was exactly it…"Pharmatician" read the sign immediately inside the room. "Not sure how much trust I can put in someone who thinks 'pharmatician' is a real word, thought Stiles; then again there weren't a lot of options. 

"GET OUT YOU PARADOXICAL ABOMINATION!" Stiles heard a high pitched voice as he walked into the door. 

Usually Stiles obeyed ominous and creepy voices but today was not his day and so he found himself walking towards it instead. As he approached, he saw a man whose height accumulated to just a bit less than Stiles' knees. "I...I uh have a curse…"

"That's the least of your worries…a puny curse. Hah! Look in your soul and see that you are more twisted than the roots of a jabberwocky tree in the fall, during copulation season." 

"Okay...let's pretend that was English...and moving on. Can you remove the curse? Or not?"

"The curse will never work on you...it'll be gone on it's own in an hour but your soul, that one is trapped." Said the man. 

“Okay...i’m getting really tired of everyone speaking in riddles...can you all, just for once, speak normally?” Stiles said, emphasizing ‘normally’. 

The man looked at him, tilting his head and pulling down his monocle, that Stiles had failed to notice before, and continued to observe Stiles. It felt way more intrusive than it should have, it felt like he was getting a full body physical checkup from a doctor but somehow even worse. 

“Very well then...I’ll speak in terms your puny human brain can understand-” “Leo’s curse, won’t work on you! Her curses are powerful but even she can’t curse a celestial being.” 

Stiles raised his eyebrows and as if the man knew what would come out of his mouth, he continued to speak - “Yes, you are human, but technically not...technically you are an angel. Well, if we are playing technicalities, you are human, angel, and zodiac. But your soul doesn’t want to show those parts; and rightfully so. You can’t be all three at once...so your soul picked for you, it picked the least stressful of the three.” 

Stiles still had more questions; why did it seem like things were always getting more confusing and every answer leads to 10 more questions. 

“Having said that..” The man moved around stiles, poking and prodding his body “...you still have the soul parts of the others so the curse will be wiped.” 

Stiles' face hadn’t changed, still exuding confusion. The man sighed and said: “In simpler terms: curse no work, 10 hour rest, yay!” in the most sarcastic tone Stiles had ever heard. “Now get out! You don’t need me anymore and I need to get back to actual work!” 

Stiles was totally confused at what had just happened...did it even happen? That was way too easy...confusing yes, but still too easy! Stiles’ wasn’t going to complain though, he’ll take what he could get! At this point did questioning things even help? Isn’t it better to just go along with all this nonsense? Why try to make sense of it? Stiles turned around, and started to walk out the door and he heard the man say one last thing: “my name’s Apollo, something tells me we are going to be meeting a lot.”


	12. Zodiac of Love - Virgo

It was exactly like Apollo had said; well he didn’t really feel the side effects of Leo’s curse for long to start with thanks to Aries, but when the curse vanished, Stiles felt his body become lighter and it felt cleaner somehow. It wasn’t a feeling he felt before, but he knew that it had to be the feeling of the curse fading away. 

It was early in the morning and Stiles had decided that he was going to cease the day...shortly after his brain reminded him that he had a trial today. So ceasing the day meant potentially dying...again. 

“Brother, stop exaggerating, he won’t be so stupid! And so what if he is, it’s not like I can help it! The decision is his and his alone, now move so we can get this started.” Stiles heard from outside his door...and Stiles was no slow snail, he knew what they were talking about, it just had to be his trial. And as the girl walked in, the room filled with a rosy smell that overwhelmed his sense of smell. He wanted to stop smelling it but with every inhale the temptation to smell it got stronger. 

“I’m Virgo. I don’t beat around the bush, I don’t like playing tricks, and the more straightforward you are with me, the easier your trill will be. Waste my time, and I promise you... I’ll waste yours. Are you ready to get started?” 

Stiles heard maybe a fifth of what the girl had said, and even then that was probably being generous. It took a bit of effort to come to his senses and finally respond to the question. “Ummm..yeah..for sure. What you said.” 

Virgo sighed, having seen men do the exact same thing in front of her a million times before, simply agreeing to things without understanding the consequences. It was the effect of her curse...unlike her siblings, she has no control over her curse; it’s always there although to different intensities! She knew where this was headed and was starting to hope that for the boy’s own sake, he’d sober up quickly. Virgo started to walk and led both her brother and Stiles to the room for the trial. She sat down in the center and started to speak.  
“My trial doesn’t test anything. It doesn’t have hidden meanings, or trivia, or any kind of special connection to me. It just requires you to do a simple task, that's all I need from you.” 

Stiles was still a bit drunk on her smell, but the adrenaline was starting to help wear off the effects of the scent. This time he at least understood everything before he nodded and let her continue speaking. 

“Your task...simple one at that...ignore 4 of my 8 commands. If you can do so, then you’ve passed. It’s that easy. Ready?” 

The scent...it was stronger...Stiles knew it got stronger...he could smell it a lot more and he was starting to feel dazed again. Not sleepy, or out of it, but not quite rational and his mind was scattered but regardless he nodded and agreed. 

“My first command is to jump up and down.” Virgo said with a neutral tone. 

‘Easy! Don’t jump….I can do that!’ Stiles thought…”that’s one fail” He heard Virgo say! 

‘Fail! How could that be...he wasn’t jum…” He then felt it...his body..it was jumping! But he hadn’t decided for it to start jumping, it did that all on it’s own. 

“My second command is to slap yourself.” 

Stiles started to think again about how he won’t do it! But his mind was still foggy and it was getting harder to think straight but he was feeling confident about this one. 

“That’s 2 fails.” Virgo said.

“Another fail? How could that be! He hadn’t moved his h…” Stiles was in thought before he felt his cheek burning red hot from the slap that he had just given himself apparently. 

“STOP!” Stiles shouted…. “I can’t control….I can’t control it. My body, it just..my mind...it’s not clear. Give me a minute.” 

“The third command is to tell me your darkest secret.”

Stiles tried to keep his mouth shut, but not a second later he was speaking: “I sometimes wish it was my dad who died instead of my mom.” Stiles wasn’t going to cry, but this was really starting to get him there. 

“At this rate, you’ll fail the test! Are you even going to bother trying?” Virgo paused slightly before speaking again. 

“My fourth command is to carve my name on your chest with this knife.” Virgo said, ignoring Stiles’ comments and heavy breathing and handing him a knife. Stiles’ body without his permission started to clutch the knife and take it and before he knew it, he felt the sharp burning sensation of the knife cutting his chest. He wanted to scream...but his external appearance wouldn’t let him. It finally stopped, and he saw blood, all over the floor and his hand. He knew it had been done. 

“Please...stop! Just one minute!” 

“My fifth command is to tear out all of your nails.”  
And the pain began all over again, Stiles could feel his nails being ripped apart from his flesh. And moments later, it was over!

“You….you said….simple.” Stiles heaved out. 

“What’s simpler than doing nothing! In fact that’s the whole point! Back to it. My sixth command is to smile while you talk about your mother’s death.” 

And just like clockwork, his mouth started to move on it’s own and started to talk about his mother’s death like it was nothing. Stiles could see the looks on Libra and Virgo’s face...it was confusion, how could he cave in so easily for something so serious.

“My 7th command is to fall on your knees and beg for forgiveness for what you said to sister Leo.” Stiles at this point was the puppet and Virgo was pulling all the strings. 

“It seems, you’re going to fail like many before you. My last command is to tell the truth. Call your mom the worst thing you can.” As soon as she finished, she heard it loud and clear, Stiles saying “No…” Even with the fact that he was fighting the urge to really do as told, he kept it in! He kept the profanity inside and kept murmuring in his head to keep the thoughts from taking over. And not soon after, it was over. The temptation to say it was gone. Stiles fell to his back and took a deep breath in. 

Virgo went out of the room while smiling. Now there was just Libra and a broken Stiles in the room. “So, what now? I failed...I could only hold out for 1 of the commands.” 

Libra looked confused, “you passed the test from where I stand so I have no idea what you’re talking about. Sister knows it just as well as I do. Trust me, if you failed, she would have said so.”

“How….how could I have passed. She was clear...I had to ignore 4 of 8 commands. I could only barely manage to ignore the last one.” 

“Well let’s see. She asked you to carve her name on your chest and you only carved ‘virg’ which isn’t her name, so you passed. Then she asked you to tear out all of your nails, and you tore out 9...which isn’t all. So, you passed. Then she asked you to smile while you talked about your mother’s death...which you did talk about, but not while smiling. And well since you didn’t insult your mom on the last command, that makes 4...so you pass.” I mean...I wouldn’t call it a win from the state your in, but it is still a pass…”

Stiles heard it all and a part of him was relieved to hear that. “...I know this isn’t the right time, but I...nevermind...can you just take me back to my room.” 

And Libra snapped his finger, and there they were, back in his room. Libra left right after saying his farewell for the day and Stiles passed out from exhaustion


	13. Beacon Hills Resurgence

** Back in Beacon Hills **

“John...You look like you have seen better days.” Talia said in a clear sarcastic tone. Derek and Laura were holding their breath and being as polite as they could be as to not insult the man in front of them. Abazcus had on the other hand not even bothered covering his nose, being familiar with the scent of war and all the smells that come with it, this smell didn’t even hold a candle to that. He rushed to the room with the energy that was basically spilling out and as soon as he went in, he scoured the place with his eyes and found nothing out of place. There was no sign of life and definitely no magical being. He came back out and spoke in a comfortable tone: “Seems like Mr. Stillinski is the only one here. That room has magical energy just oozing out of it but there seems to be no source. We should analyze it as soon as we can. I recommend that Mr. Stillinski stay elsewhere for the time being.” 

Talia nodded and agreed, “John, if it wouldn't be too much to ask, would you mind staying at our house for a few days. We believe there is something potentially dangerous here.” 

John nodded yes without even thinking about it. He started to walk down the stairs again before Talia stopped him and said “John...what about Stiles? Where is he?” 

At the mention of the name, Derek panicked...if they were staying at his house then he would have to see Stiles everyday for a few days and his heart started to drop. Although he didn’t know this feeling he knew that it wasn’t a good one. 

“Stiles….Yes..of course, Stiles….He’s….uh...He’s.” John couldn’t remember where Stiles was. Did Stiles tell him where he went? “I can’t remember….Stiles….I don’t remember where he is.” John said. 

“Mom, he’s clearly drunk. I don’t think he can remember anything. We can call Stiles from his dad’s phone after we get him out of here.” Laura said. Talia agreed and pointed for Derek and Laura to take Mr. Stiles back to their house. “I’ll accompany Abazcus until the analysis is finished, you guys go ahead.” 

As soon as they had stepped outside of the house Laura asked John for his phone. The sheriff had no objections and easily gave it to her. The phone had no lock on it and she could easily get into it, and then it took no time for her to make a call to the number with the name “Stiles”. She heard the ringing and she kept hearing it...it was weird, there was no ringing and then she heard it…”This number you have dialed is currently unavailable please try again later.” She shrugged it off, and instead copied down the number onto her phone. When she handed the phone back to the sheriff, Derek gave her a look, which she understood immediately as “so?”. She gave him a shrug back as to say “He didn’t pick up.” Strangely enough for them body language was enough to communicate. She drove back home with the Sheriff and politely demanded that he bathe if not for his own sake for the sake of all the wolves in the house. 

“Abazcus, what is it?” 

“Talia...this isn’t good. No matter what we try we can’t decipher it. The magic sequence is unlike anything we ahve ever seen. Not to mention it’s been here so long and still is so powerful. Whatever created this magic signature is definitely a threat if we are on it’s bad side.” 

“What is our next step to find out who it belongs to? What it belongs to?” 

“There’s no next step...we can only wait for it to find us.” Abazcus said. 

Talia sighed, hoping that whatever this thing was would never come back but knowing the luck of the town there was no way that was going to happen. “I just hope we aren’t on it’s bad side.” Talia said. “Alright, pack up, let’s go back and get everyone on the same page.” 

They were all packed up and then Abazcus had an idea. “Wait…We...could try one more thing.”

“What is it?” Talia said.

“I can reverse summon it. There is enough magic here, I can use the magic to make a call of sorts to the person or hting that left this signature. And if we are lucky they’ll answer it.” 

“No, if we’re lucky they’ll answer politely.” Talia said. “Alright, let’s try it!” 

Abazcus prepared everything and in no time he was casting his spell. Talia could see the aura in the room changing. Five minutes passed and there was no response. They were about to call it an end...when finally a golden figure appeared in front of them. 

“Bold of you to assume you can summon me!” The man in the golden armor said. 

“We mean no harm. We simply were curious as to what left this amazing and beautiful magical signature” Abazcus said using his sweet words, hoping that the kiss-assery would help the situation in their favor. 

“You are wise to use sweet words, but your bodies reactions don’t match your words. I can feel the air growing thicker with your fear.” 

“We..” Abazcus tried to talk but then the golden armored man lifted his finger and with that Abazcus was unable to talk. Not because he was speechless but his body physically couldn’t make a sound. 

“Why is he doing all the talking, when the leader is right here.” The golden armored man said. 

Talia kept her cool and kept her emotions in check. She did her best, but the magical aura coming off of him was so dense and thick she couldn’t help but be nervous. “We...mean no harm. We mean that.” 

“That’s cute, thinking you could harm us even if you wanted to do. Let’s make this short, tell me what it is you want.” 

“We just want to know, do you mean us any harm? Have we angered you?”

“You are no enemy of mine nor friend. Fear not, I shall not hurt a single soul in this town...but if you dare to think you can summon me again I will tear you all down with the blink of my eye.” The man said, smirking slightly..”oh and one more thing. Talia of the Hale pack, there is a question that will need answering later. Let me be the one to answer it: He’s doing fine, thriving actually.” and with that he was gone.


	14. Gathering of the Zodiacs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR READING AND SENDING ME SO MUCH LOVE! I APRRECIATE EVERY SINGLE ONE YOU! I forgot how strong Korean work culture was....soooo...I may be uploading a bit slower since I work such late hours and lose a lot of my energy there. Sorry, but I will not be disappearing!!
> 
> There were also some questions regarding Stiles' future and I just wanted to clarify somethings!   
> 1) Stiles is technically "human"...and without giving any more spoilers that's all I will say. Asking me more about it will ruin a few surprises and so I hope you guys can wait to find out! 
> 
> 2) Yes, Derek and Stiles are end goal....will there be others along the way??? Let's find out together! HAHAHAH 
> 
> 3) BAMF Stiles coming soon...please wait a bit longer (He's almost here...kinda) 
> 
> Okay...yeah that ought to cover it! Happy Reading!!

“What is the meaning of this meeting? And for heaven's sake why are you in your battle armor little brother?” Aries said looking directly at Libra dressed in his golden armor...in fact all of his brothers and sisters were doing the same. Libra could feel the stares of all his siblings but he was not even a bit phased. 

“Stiles has passed six of our tests...and let's face it, he will pass all twelve tests. I am not even a bit concerned about that. However, it seems that his tiny little town will be involving themselves in his business soon enough. I need your permission to wreak havoc if needed.” Libra said with his voice unshaking.   
“Brother, are you asking us if you are allowed to use your curse? Because shall I be the first to remind you that your curse may be one of the deadliest amongst us?” Scorpio said calmly. 

“If the need for my curse comes, then yes I’ll use it but as we agreed in the past, I may only use my curse with all of your consent. So, do I have it?” Libra said. 

“No...as a celestial protector of the boy you are not to intervene with the boy’s affairs unless he is on the brink of death. You know the rules by heart little brother. If you have forgotten I’d be happy to teach them to you again in a way so that it sticks permanently.” Aquarius chimed in. “Plus, if he can pass all of our tests, he doesn’t need your protection. Stay out of it brother!” 

“I agree, you need to concern yourself with this tiny matter especially over a human who has no decency or control over his mouth.” 

“Sister Leo, he…” Libra tried before he was interrupted 

Gemini had raised his hand and put one finger to his own lip, signalling Libra to hush. “You think him weak, pathetic, or perhaps you think he needs pity?” Gemini said as he walked closer to Libra. “Brother, that little boy holds power that none of us could even imagine. His soul is fragmented!” 

Everyone in the room turned silent and looked at Gemini. “You mean...he has duality? He has two different souls?” Aries said out loud “Explain yourself brother!” 

“I have been speaking to our dear little doctor and although his soul has decided to be human, he has two other fragments waiting to come out!” 

“It’s bad enough to have two fragments, you mean to say he has three? Then there is no question about it, we should kill him now...the damage he could cause to everyone…” Aquarius was cut off by Aries. 

“Touch a hair on his body and sister I will drown you in your own waters!” Aries said in a roar. 

“Well well, it seems our brother has grown fond of our little human.” Gemini said, smirking. Aries sat down with anger still on his face. “Oh relax, no one will kill him! We simply must make sure that his other soul fragments aren’t released. Meaning, he must stay human...no matter what! It’s not an option! Having said that...we might need Libra to use his curse if the time comes...when the time comes, so we should unbind him, or else we might be fighting a lot more than just the angels.” Gemini said. 

The other zodiacs looked at each other and started to mull over the thought of the problem that Stiles may cause. After a while of thinking, they all ultimately agreed to consent. 

“Alright, it seems we all agree...shall we start the unbinding then?” Gemini said, smirking. 

The zodiacs all took out a piece of a golden key and started to merge it together...a key broken into eleven pieces. After the key had been completed Gemini took it over to Libra and quickly stabbed it into Libra’s heart. “Remember brother, this curse is as much a toll on you as it is on others! Do not be consumed by its temptation as you had been before!” He whispered into Libra’s ear as he pushed the key further in. 

Libra simply nodded as his body was starting to burn. He was feeling parts of body as if he had never felt them before. It was all an overwhelming sensation and then at an instant it was over. He knew...he knew the curse was back in him. 

“For future reference...if you want something from our brothers and sisters, you have to trick them. Logic will get you nowhere.I helped you today, but I may not always be there younger brother! You are smart, but not clever. Learn to be clever!” Gemini said as he walked away.


	15. Zodiac of Intellect - Libra

“Stiles...wake up!” Stiles heard as he started to open his eyes and then started to rub them as he saw blurry figures standing in front of him. As his eyes started to clear up, all the figures focused into one clear person standing over him as he layed in bed. 

“It’s almost test time. I highly recommend you eat food, get dressed and when you’re finished simply say my name.” Libra said in a whispered tone. Stiles nodded his head and just like that, Libra was gone. He continued to rub his eyes as he got up and sat in his bed with legs dangling over the side of the bed. Yawning a few times...he saw the food and clothes and he wasted no time in getting dressed and then eating the food. Just as he finished, he took a small breath and said “Libra”. The room he was in had vanished and in its place, the test room had appeared. 

“Welcome to my test Stiles. I know that you are born of my sign and technically speaking you shouldn’t even have to do my test...however, I have decided that we shall conduct normal testing. My test may be one of the easiest yet hardest tests and I know that it is...so I will warn you before you begin: rules are meant to be broken. Having said that, the rule and the task are one and the same: Complete the puzzle. That’s how you pass my test...understood?” 

Stiles nodded and awaited the trial to begin. Soon after the room started shifting into different forms, almost as if it was trying to figure out what to turn into. The room finally stopped shifting and there was a white cube in the center of the now dark room. The cube was glowing, almost like it was calling Stiles to pick it up. Stiles wasted no time in doing so and noticed that as soon as his hand touched the cube it started to glow in different colours...it was a pattern. A simple series of sequential patterns, Stiles thought. He pressed the areas on the cube that lit up in the sequence they had lit up. As soon as he pressed the last spot, the cube zapped Stiles...a minor shock. Not enough to cause harm but definitely enough to let him know he got the answer wrong. Moments later, the cube was at it again...the sequence had changed. Stiles tried it again and it resulted in another shock. It felt different but the same...a feeling he couldn’t describe. After a few more attempts, with different answering strategies, he still always received a shock. Stiles put the cube down. As soon as he did, the cube had gone back to its glowing state but there were black numbers which had started counting down from thirty. Stiles was no genius but a countdown was never a good thing...so he picked up the cube in hopes that it would revert back to the test. 

As he thought, the cube started the sequences again as soon as he picked up the cube. He input the sequence as he saw and he was zapped again...but this time it hurt...it actually hurt. He felt it...the electrical power was much stronger than before. Then it clicked…”each wrong attempt increases the power of the electrical output…”Stiles said out loud...and not much later another though came to him…”...if I make enough wrong attempts I’ll pass out from the electrical shock and that means the timer will run out on the cube...which will probably be a loss. That means I’ll probably have to solve the test soon….think stiles think.” Stiles had studied enough math, physics, and science to know random facts but more than that, he knew how to use his knowledge. “How many tries do I have left? Assuming I started with a one milliamp shock output for the sensation and now feel slight pain...probably means i’m at about 5 milliamps. I did 5 tries so that means a milliamp per try. 20 milliamps is where it’ll get dangerous, 50 milliamps are where it starts getting really painful. I’m guessing 40 amps is about when I'll start to pass out, so 35 more tries...best case scenario.” Stiles had 35 tries to figure out the answer. He saw that the cube had done a sequence while he was thinking but he hadn’t paid attention and put in a random answer and he felt the shock. 

“For fucks sake!” Stiles said unable to let go of the cube as his hand muscles continuously contracted and spasmed from the shock. After a few seconds it stopped. “That was way more than 6 milliamps...which means, it’s not a linear scale. And most likely some kind of exponential situation...which means I have no way of knowing the rate of increase and that means no way of knowing the number of attempts left…”but he knew there weren't many left. This attempt hurt and caused spasms which meant maybe 2 or 3 more before he would start passing out. Stiles saw the sequence beginning again and he paid attention, he put in the sequence and as soon as the last portion of the sequence was entered, he was sent flying away from the cube. His body was barely able to move, vision blurry, but his mind was perfectly intact… “that was enough shock to send me flying...the next one...next one will definitely be enough to kill me.” Stiles thought. Stiles’ vision started to clear up and then he saw the cube...glowing its heavenly white color. Stiles found it odd…he couldn’t quite put his finger on it but the cube looked strange. Something was missing...what was missing...Stiles’ brain started working overtime, he was so close. The answer was on the tip of his tongue but he just couldn’t get it out of his mouth. Stiles’ eyes widened…”the numbers….there are no numbers. It’s not counting down.” Why isn’t it counting down? Think Stiles...think...he had a suspicion, but whether he was right or not, he didn’t know for sure. The way Stiles saw it, he could enter the sequence again and die from shock or try something new and see what happens. So Stiles struggled and writhed to pick himself up from the floor. His muscles were clearly weak from the shock that they had just received. He went to the cube slowly, and picked it up...the cube started the sequence and at the end of it, Stiles put it down. The cube started to glow and barely a second later there was a countdown. Stiles’ eyes honed in on the numbers and just let his body drop to the floor as he focused on the numbers. Each second that went by his heartbeat became faster and faster. 

“3...2...1...0…” Nothing happened...The cube simply had 00 written on it and other than that nothing happened. Stiles started looking around and saw that the room was slowly becoming white again...it was over. A sense of relief came over him and he let his body relax on the floor. 

Stiles saw a pair of feet in front of him, he was too lazy to turn his head up and look at who it was, but he didn’t have to. He knew it was Libra. 

“What a close call that was…” Libra said “but in the end it’s a pass!” 

Stiles sighed and said “Easy my ass...which part of that was easy! It wasn’t even obvious! I mean now that I think about it, it was pretty obvious but seriously, hindsight is 20/20!” Stiles said with his body still spasming every now and then on the floor. “Also...electrical shocks? Really? You couldn’t have picked any other form of torture? This is what you had to go with?” 

Libra smiled, and started to squat down. He lifted Stiles’ head and said “the element that the cube uses to punish people is based on what you are least afraid of. Yes...you heard me right...it’s the element that you are least afraid of. Or at least the cube thinks so! That’s irrelevant though...you passed. Go rest, tomorrow is a rest day...your next test will be the day after tomorrow. You can do as you please for tomorrow!” Libra said, and then vanished. 

Stiles simply just lay on the floor for a bit longer before he knocked out and fell asleep on the floor.


	16. Guardian From the Stars

“While healers heal, the fighters fight, but while the lovers love, enemies unite”... these words echoed through Stiles’ ears. An inkling of a poem that his mother used to read to him. He couldn’t remember her voice, but the echo sounded similar, or so he thought. It seemed like ages since he had her voice, he wasn’t even sure if he could pick out his mother’s voice anymore. But this voice, this echo, was just as soothing. The hums, the vibrations of the voice...it felt like a lullaby. He felt relaxed and he felt his tensed body start to relax. His body had started to feel more and more relaxed and eventually whatever soreness or injuries he had, he couldn’t feel them anymore. He was glad, this may be the most relaxed he had felt since arriving here.   
Stiles kept his eyes closed, he didn’t want to ruin this moment. He feared that the moment he opened his eyes he would have to think about reality and he just wanted to be left in this relaxed state for as long as he could be...which was apparently five whole seconds! 

“I know you’re awake! Open your eyes and start helping out! After all this is for you, you know!” a voice said in a very neutral yet bossy tone. 

Stiles opened his eyes and shifted his head towards the direction from where the man's voice had come. It was Apollo...the pharmatician. “Did….I just use that word...god, the longer I stay here, the crazier I’m getting.” He thought to himself. 

“Move your ass!” 

Stiles got up slowly and although he was shaky, he realized that his body’s injuries were all gone. There wasn’t a single scar or bruise on him. The others had healed him before, but nothing to this level! There were always scars or bruises leftover and definitely pain! “What...my body...it’s all healed. I don’t feel any pain!” 

“Well, I sure hope so! Otherwise I wouldn’t really be doing my job!” Apollo said! “Now, hold this string!” 

Stiles without questioning put the strings in his hands and as soon as he did Apollo chanted something that Stiles couldn’t quite make out. After waiting five or seconds he heard Apollo sigh. “What happened?” Stiles asked? 

“Well clearly nothing! I was hoping to get some answers about you, but your body is being stubborn! This should have worked! I am sure of it!” 

“What exactly did you just try to do though?” 

“It’s simple, I just shot massive amounts of radiation into your body to see if one of your souls would come out to protect you! But no luck!” 

“Radiation….you mean like...the stuff that can kill people if it's in too high amounts? ARE YOU CRAZY! ALSO WHY DID YOU NEED A STRING TO DO THAT? HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?” 

“The string...ohhhh I couldn’t find the trash can, so I gave it to you. Consider it a present. Now let's move onto the next experiment! Torture! I am sure one of the two parts will definitely come out then!” 

“TORTURE! YEAh...you’re on your own there buddy! I don’t know about your kinks but pain is not one of mine! Also, consent my dude, so not cool to just assume stuff!” Stiles said.   
Apollo smiled, “fine fine, no torture! It didn’t look like your soul parts wanted to come out anyways. Which is a good thing! If they ever came out, the whole world would try to kill you. Hhahahahaah” He laughed. 

Stiles was completely unamused at the sound of hearing that, but apparently it was a joke and Stiles couldn’t hold back his laugh regardless of how unamused he felt. The man in front of him had the most infectious laugh. Stiles doesn’t ever recall laughing after his mother had died. This was his first time since then...and he only had to go a million miles away from home to do so. As the atmosphere in the room became lighter Stiles started to feel lighter and lighter. He felt more relaxed and he would dare even say “at home”. 

“Can I ask you a question?” Stiles said as Apollo had gone back to some random experiment he had been working on. Apollo simply shrugged his body, indifferent to the question asked. 

“I keep asking them...the zodiacs I mean...I keep asking the zodiacs questions but I always get half answers and I don’t know, you just have this energy about you. It makes me think I can ask you anything and you’ll tell me the answer I need to hear and hold no punches back.” Stiles went on saying. 

“And the question is?” 

“If they are looking for soldiers for their army, why do all these dangerous tests? Shouldn’t they just deploy whoever they can find? I mean that seems the most logical thing to do, doesn’t it?” 

Apollo stopped tweaking with the machine in front of him and looked at Stiles…”So you aren’t just a pretty face after all.” Apollo got up and grabbed a book from the top shelf on the right side of the room. He gave the book to Stiles. “Read this, and if after this you still have questions, come find me..oh and Stiles, I was serious about earlier. The world will try to kill you if your souls ever awoke but from the looks of it you’ll be human no matter what happens.” Apollo said before breaking the tension. “Anyways, you should go read the book. The only reason I brought you here was to fix you the best I could...which I did. So bye bye!” And with that Stiles was back in his room...with the book in his hand. 

Stiles looked at the book, “The new SIGN system: Details and Innerworkings”. Stiles looked for the name of the author...and there was none. He got a dejavu feeling, like this had happened before. He opened the book and started reading! The book wasted no time in getting into the details and contents. 

“The system called the 'Systematic Indicator of General Natural traits' (SIGN) was evolved to make it easier for the zodiacs to impart their gifts onto people without having to carry out a trial. However as years went by, this system became obsolete and in fact started to show flaws. One of the biggest flaws was that sometimes a person born under one constellation sign would show affinity for a different constellation sign. Meaning that if imbued with the gift of the constellation under which they were born, nothing would happen. In rare cases the person may show symptoms of Star Sickness (the body starts to burn up and eventually the person dies from overheating). Although this was indeed a flaw, the zodiacs had decided to ignore it as the alternative was too troublesome and tedious of a task. That is until they came across special children. The zodiacs had eventually started witnessing children who would have affinity for all 12 zodiacs. These children could accept the gift of all zodiacs without any consequences. These children are referred to as: Poly-decans. However the zodiacs also knew that there would be no way of knowing if the children had this potential unless they were tested using the old trial system, which is also how they originally came to witness their first poly-decan child.” 

Stiles started to process the information and it was starting to seem more clear as to why they were testing him like this but it still didn’t explain why the tests had to be so dangerous. And as if fate was on his side, the very next section had started to explain just that. 

“Poly-decan children could therefore be a force to reckon with if they could accept all 12 zodiac signs’ powers. The problem lies in the fact that supernatural creatures of Earth can’t really contain the power of 12 zodiacs within their soul without the end result being the death of the child. Finding a poly-decan child is rare enough, but finding one who can hold the power of all 12 is even rarer. Now although there haven’t been any official children who could hold all 12 zodiac powers, the previous poly-decan child held eight without any problems. This suggests that each individual does have their own threshold. The most interesting thing about poly-decan children is the testing difference. Normal children experience tests that are mild and usually easy to solve. But if these tests are administered to the poly-decan children, the poly-decan children’s potential would never be seen. In order to see the potential of a poly-decan child, they must go through tests that push them to the limit mentally and physically. The number of tests they pass is directly correlated to the number of zodiac gifts they can accept without dying. Having said that...how do zodiacs know to administer the mild version versus the extreme version of the tests? Well, they don’t! If they have a feeling that the child may be poly-decan, they can choose to use the extreme versions of the test. If they don’t then they can use the mild version. It’s simply a game of chance, which is why these children are so rare. If the zodiacs can find a poly-decan child that can be imbued with all 12 gifts they will have created a new species essentially. The zodiacs gifts would combine within the soul, hypothetically, and as they merge together a new soul would surely form, leading to what we hypothesize would be a super form of the zodiacs...a holy warrior of sorts.” 

It finally all clicked in Stiles’ head...they were trying to make Stiles a weapon. They wanted Stiles to be their trump card...their solution to this war.


	17. Color of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in Beacon Hills

Derek didn’t know what to think! Stiles’ father was currently taking a shower in his house and god knows, soon Stiles would be joining. His heart started beating even faster...it was out of his control and Derek couldn’t understand why. The signs of frustration were easily seen on Derek’s face but since he lived in a house full of werewolves, even if they couldn’t see it on his face, they could hear it in his heart. Laura came towards Derek, “Derek, why is your heart beating so fast? You doing fine?” 

“Fine!” - lie, Laura didn’t need her werewolf senses to know when her dear little brother was lying, but they sure helped. What they didn’t help with was as to why he would lie. “Derek...do you want to try that again?” Laura said making it abundantly clear that she caught his lie. 

“Listen...I don’t know either! My heart just keeps beating fast everytime Stiles’ name comes into my mind. And nowadays it seems to be coming up a lot...it’s like he’s decided to live in my head rent free.” Derek said, deciding to be fully honest about the situation.

Laura didn’t detect any lies, and she decided to believe her brother. “Are you worried about him? I mean I know you two are in the same class but I didn’t think you guys were close.” 

“Worry...I wouldn’t word it like that, I’m just curious i think...about if he’s...” As he was about to finish his sentence, his mother walked into the house yelling “Everyone downstairs NOW!” and Abazcus right behind her. 

Laura and Derek knew that tone, and when their mom used her Alpha voice, it was best to just obey. They hurried downstairs and it seemed that they were they last ones to enter the room as the rest of the family had already gathered. 

“Where is the pack?” Talia asked. 

“They all went home after you left.” Cora said. 

Talia sighed, “Well we can fill them in later but for now you all listen carefully! The magic that was left in the house came from a being that we couldn’t fight even if we wanted to. This is my warning to all of you, DON’T GET ON ANYONE’S BAD SIDE WHO EXUDES SO MUCH ENERGY THAT IT MAKES YOU WANT TO KNEEL!” 

Everyone looked at her in shock. 

“DO YOU ALL UNDERSTAND?” SHe yelled! 

“Yes, we do!” Everyone said in sync, they weren’t answering a family member. They were answering to their Alpha. “Okay..you can all go!” 

And as everyone was about to leave, she  
“Also, the person or thing...whatever you want to call it that came to us...left us a message before leaving. But before I say anything are there any questions?” 

Everyone was quiet, and then Laura started speaking. “Stiles...Derek was wondering if Stiles is doing fine?” 

Talia and Abazcus shared a look with each other before Abazcus spoke: “The message he left us was, ‘He’s doing fine, thriving actually.’' So I guess we have our answer as to who ‘he’ is in this situation. 

“Where’s John?” Talia asked Derek and Laura. 

“Upstairs, in the guest bathroom, taking a shower.” Laura answered quickly and Talia wasted no time rushing up. The rest of the family decided to follow..they could listen in on the conversation from downstairs too but something about being there appealed to them. 

Talia approached the door and there it was, the scent of the alcohol again. The entire family had their noses clenched. 

“God, did he drink the whole liquor store or what?” Cora said in a whispered tone. The rest of the family gave her eyes like daggers. “What...you can all smell it too!” She reciprocated. Everyone just shook their heads and went back to eavesdropping on their mother confronting the sheriff. 

“John! We need to talk” Talia said as she knocked on the door.” 

“Uhh...right now?” 

“Sooner the better...open the door John or I will.” 

“I’m sure it can wait 10 minutes.” 

“It’s about Stiles” 

Everyone heard the door open. With the Sheriff covered in a towel, the stench of alcohol still covering him, he spoke: “What about him? What happened?” 

“Actually we were wondering if you knew.” Talia asked.

“I...I..I don’t know. You are the one who wanted to talk about him. How would I know what’s wrong?” 

Talia looked confused...the expression on John’s face was genuine and his body’s reaction was genuine. “John, when was the last time you saw Stiles?” 

The Sheriff answered rather quickly for someone who seemed rather confused: “I saw him leave the house on his birthday.” 

Everyone was silent...The sheriff noticed that something was wrong. “Why is everyone so quiet? Where is Stiles?” Adrenaline clearly taking over and killing whatever drunkenness was leftover. 

Talia looked to everyone and said, “alright everyone we officially have one person missing...missing for about five months.” Talia said. 

The sheriff’s heart skipped a beat after hearing how long it had been. “Five months, you’re mistaken. It’s been a week or so.” In technicalities the Sheriff wasn’t wrong, if they did the calculations it does mean about a week in the zodiac’s realm..but they were on Earth, and that meant five months. 

“John, today is March...doesn’t the weather strike you as a bit odd if it were November?” Talia added. 

The Sheriff’s feet gave up and he fell to the floor, looking like a complete mess in front of everyone. Although everyone was clearly understanding of the situation, Cora had other thoughts. 

“Wait, is no one going to ask how he didn’t notice Stiles was missing for five months? Or are we going to just ignore that part?” Cora said in a very sarcastic tone. 

Everyone gave her dagger eyes and she shrugged and continued her train of thought. “Was his memory taken? Was he charmed? Was he cursed? What happened? I mean it’s a valid question!” 

Talia looked at her daughter and smiled, realizing what she meant. “She has a point, if Stiles was their target then they would make sure that his family wouldn’t notice him gone. So they would do something to make sure no one would notice him gone...or well no one close to him at least.” Talia paused before she had an idea…”John, if you let me, I can figure out what happened..maybe...if we are lucky. Just let me sink my claws into your brain stem.” 

The sheriff looked alarmed. Everyone noticed it immediately!

“Don’t worry, I am highly trained and as long as I am the one doing it, you won’t even feel a thing.” 

“Will it help find Stiles?” 

“I think so!” 

“Then do it, whatever you need!” 

Talia moved closer to the Sheriff and she exposed her claws and slowly started sinking them into the back of the Sheriff’s neck. Moments later she was seeing flashbacks of the Sheriff’s experiences. She started to maneuver through the memories and see what the situation was. After she had finished absorbing as many of the memories as she could, she retracted her claws and there were tears rolling down her eyes. She looked at her kids and said “Everyone, OUT! NOW!” 

They all scattered the moment they heard the alpha’s voice. As soon as the kids had scattered Talia picked the Sheriff up, and looked at him and said “Get dressed! You have two minutes.” 

John’s heart beating faster than it ever has...he noticed the change in Talia’s voice and he knew something was wrong. He got ready as quickly as possible and opened the door again after he had fully dressed himself. 

The moment he stepped out of the room, Talia started yelling. At this point it was useless to tell everyone to scatter. They could hear it regardless of where they were in the house. 

“YOU LEFT HIM TO DEFEND FOR HIMSELF! HE’S A KID JOHN. AND WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING? GETTING DRUNK THIS ENTIRE TIME! YOU WERE SO OUT OF IT YOU DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE HOW LONG IT’S BEEN SINCE HE’S GONE. JOHN THEY DIDN’T NEED TO PUT A CURSE OR CHARM ON YOU, WHY WOULD THEY WHEN YOU WERE DRUNK THE ENTIRE TIME. GODDDD WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF WE NEVER CAME TO YOUR PLACE? WOULD YOU HAVE EVEN NOTICED HE WAS GONE?” 

John’s eyes started to tear...his brain had started to process all that was happening! But his body was faster than his brain this time. 

“Save your tears! God, John, what have you become! The man I saw in the memories, was not the man I knew!” Talia said. 

Derek heard everything...his heart had started beating faster...why was it beating faster...something was wrong. He knew something was wrong. His body started to burn up and it felt like his wolf...that's when he realized what was happening. He was about to lose control...his wolf was demanding control and it wouldn’t take no for an answer. It only took a second for his wolf form to come out...and he howled. Everyone was looking at him now! 

Talia heard the howl and she rushed down the moment she heard it because she knew that someone had transformed. She saw the dark black wolf and knew immediately who it was. 

Derek was struggling to get back in control. It took all of his power to suppress his wolf form but he had finally achieved it and the last thing he heard was his mom speak: “Derek...your eyes...they’re purple.”


End file.
